The question of whether Neanderthals and Denisovans were ever simultaneously present in the cave — whether they cohabited it, competed for it, or used it alternately at different seasons or in different periods — cannot be definitively answered from the current evidence.

What is clear is that the cave was, over a long period, a significant location for multiple types of ancient humans.

Its preservation conditions made it an invaluable archive of their presence.

And the genomic analysis of the individuals recovered from it has repeatedly produced findings that change what scientists thought they knew about ancient human relationships.

What Denny Proved That No Other Evidence Had

The discovery of Denny in 2018 was significant not just for what it found but for what it proved — definitively, without inference required — about the relationship between Neanderthals and Denisovans.