The new DNA results on the so-called Denisovan skeletal remains, dated to 41,000 years ago, showed that these hominins were genetically different from both Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans but were more similar to Neanderthals than to humans. What is the implication of these differences?

represent descendants of a distinct wave of migration out of Africa, earlier than Neanderthals and modern humans but after H. erectus.

Explanation:

The Denisovans or Denisova hominins are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that lived across Asia at the time of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic.

The first Denisovan individual was well observed and noted in 2010 according to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) gotten from a juvenile female finger bone from the Siberian Denisova Cave (hence, The name Denisovan) Nuclear DNA (nDNA) shows proximity with Neanderthals. DNA evidence propose that they had dark skin, eyes, and hair.

Studies suggest that this species moved broadly across Asia. A theory viewd the Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans as descendants of the ancient human Homo heidelbergensis. Suggesting that around 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, an ancestral set of H. heidelbergensis migrated out of Africa and separated after a short time. One set (Neanderthals) moved northwestward to West Asia and Europe and the other set migrated east, becoming Denisovans. Around 130,000 years ago, H. heidelbergensis in Africa had transformed into Homo sapiens-our ancestors-who started their exodus from Africa until around 60,000 years ago.