Svante Paabo and his team sequenced and identified the mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) of Denisovans, extracted from a tiny phalanx of a female pinky finger found in a cave in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia, in caves also inhabited, at different times, by Neanderthals. Nuclear DNA, however, reveals close relationships (17%) with Neanderthals. They had dark skin, eyes, and hair, unlike Neanderthals. Denisovans also interbred with modern humans, and today approximately 3-5% of the DNA of Melanesian and Australian Aboriginal populations is Denisovan, while in Papua New Guinean populations this percentage is as high as 7-8%. These interbreedings likely occurred around 30,000 years ago.
