A human rib fossil unearthed from the Baishiya Cave in Xiahe, Gansu Province, has refreshed the latest survival time of the Danisova people from about 55000 years ago to about 40000 years ago. The study, jointly led by Lanzhou University, the Tibetan Plateau Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, revealed for the first time the living environment and survival strategies of the Denisovans on the Tibetan Plateau. The related research results were published online on the 3rd in the academic journal Nature. The Denisovans are an extinct group of ancient humans that may have been widespread on the eastern side of the Eurasian continent. At present, there are only two confirmed Danisova Man sites: the Danisova Cave in southern Siberia and the White Cliff Cave in the northeast of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. From 2018 to 2019, more than 2500 animal skeletons were excavated from the Baishiya karst cave. The research team obtained information on the species and utilization of animal resources in ancient humans through systematic animal archaeology and paleoprotein analysis, and screened out a new Denisovan rib fossil. The fossil was unearthed from a geological age of approximately 48000 to 32000 years ago, providing conclusive human fossil evidence for the Late Pleistocene Denisovan activity at the Baishiya karst cave site, and extending the latest survival time of the Denisovan to approximately 40000 years ago. This provides new materials for the study of the physical and genetic characteristics, activity history, and high-altitude environmental adaptation of the Denisovans, as well as key new clues for the coexistence and genetic and cultural exchange of Denisovans and early modern humans in East Asia. In this study, more than 20 categories of vertebrates were identified, including herbivorous animals such as rhinoceros, wild yaks, wild horses, red deer, rock sheep, Tibetan antelopes, carnivorous animals such as leopards, wolves, and Tibetan foxes, small mammals such as plateau rabbits, pikas, and marmots, as well as birds such as pheasants and golden eagles. The composition of the animal community reveals that the Ganjia Basin, where the Baishiya Karst Cave Site is located, is mainly characterized by open grassland landscapes and the presence of forest resource patches. Comprehensive analysis shows that the Danisova people are the main gatherers of skeletal remains at the Baishiya Cave site. They utilize diverse animal resources and have a wide range of recipes to complete animal resource processing and consumption behaviors such as skinning, dismembering, and meat removal in the cave. They also try to use animal bones to make simple tools. It is reported that the animal bones unearthed from the Baishiya karst cave site are very fragmented, and most of the broken bones cannot be identified as species based on their morphological characteristics using traditional animal archaeology methods. This study introduces an emerging method for ancient protein analysis, which identifies the genus of bone fragments based on small differences in the amino acid sequences of collagen proteins from different species. Earlier, a fossil of a human right jawbone was discovered at the Baishiya karst cave site. The research team determined through chronological analysis that the fossil was formed at least 160000 years ago, thus advancing the earliest human activity record on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau from 40000 years ago to at least 160000 years ago; The analysis of ancient proteins shows that the fossil belongs to the Denisovan people. (Lai Xin She)