In eastern Asia, the picture was more diverse and less well-understood.

The fossil record of eastern Asia in this period includes specimens that have been variously assigned to Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, and other categories — a classification problem that the genetic identification of the Denisovans has complicated by demonstrating that at least some of these populations were genetically distinct from the Neanderthals in ways that morphological analysis had not clearly detected.

In the Altai region specifically — in the mountains where Denisova Cave sits — both Neanderthals and Denisovans were present.

The different Denisova Cave individuals, recovered from different stratigraphic layers, provide a temporal record of occupation stretching from perhaps 200,000 years ago or more to perhaps 30,000 years ago.