This would have placed the Denisovans in contact with multiple populations of modern humans as the latter spread out of Africa and through Asia.

The different levels of Denisovan ancestry found in different modern populations — highest in Oceanians, lower in mainland Asians, very low in most Western populations — reflect the geography of these encounters and the fact that different modern human populations interbred with Denisovans at different times and places along their routes of expansion.

For the Neanderthals, the question of how far east their range extended is one that the genetics is actively helping to answer.

The Denisova 5 individual — the Altai Neanderthal — demonstrates that Neanderthals were present in Siberia at some point, far east of the European heartland of Neanderthal territory.