Using palaeoproteomics on fossils from Xujiayao in northern China, a team led by IVPP's Qiaomei Fu confirms these Middle Pleistocene hominins were Denisovans and, for the first time, outlines the group's shared cranial, mandibular and dental morphology—suggesting most archaic humans in East Asia between 300,000 and 100,000 years ago belonged to this lineage.