It was discovered in a cave in Zhenning County in China’s Guizhou Province, about 615 straight-line miles northwest from Hong Kong. The research team included Leishan Wang, Qi Luo and Renyi Zhang.

That conclusion coupled with the more recent finding of 45,000-year-old cave sediment with DNA suggests Denisovans consistently occupied Baishiya Karst cave for more than 100,000 years.

A newly discovered karst cave dating back 480 million years in remote southwest China has revealed a pristine sediment "gene pool" that experts say has not been seen before.

Citations D. Zhang et al. Denisovan DNA in Late Pleistocene sediments from Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau. Science. Vol. 370, October 30, 2020, p. 584. doi: 10.1126/science.abb6320.

According to official records, a similar karst cave measuring 3,940 feet long was found 1.2 miles away from Zang's home in 1976. It's still unclear whether the two caves are connected.

The Baishiya Karst Cave is not an easy place to call home. It is nestled on a steep rocky slope on the Tibetan Plateau, 10,700 feet up, where the oxygen is thin and the climate cold and dry.

In fact, 25% of the United States is karst or pseudokarst, which features caves carved by factors other than dissolution, such as volcanics or wind, Veni said.