With curated fossil specimens in Prof. Tsai’s lab and the Denisovan fossil held at the National Museum of Natural Science, which were similarly recovered from the seabed between Taiwan and the Penghu Islands (including Stegodon fossils shown in reconstruction images), the research team was enabled to conduct preliminary exploratory studies, as destructive procedures such as ancient DNA or protein extraction carry significant uncertainty and no guarantee of retrieving such precious molecular data from ancient human remains. In 2023, Tsai’s lab integrated fossil discoveries from Taiwan into a global study on island extinctions, which was likewise published in Science . Alongside other related paleontological findings, these works continue to demonstrate how ancient human and animal fossils from Taiwan offer critical opportunities to rethink the trajectory of life and evolutionary history.

This research was published in Science on April 11, 2025: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads3888