Extinct human remains found on seafloor fuel claims of real-life biblical giants

The remains of an extinct human discovered on the seafloor off Taiwan have reignited theories about the giants described in the Bible.

Researchers identified the mysterious leg bones as belonging to Denisovans, an ancient human group that split from the Neanderthal lineage about 550,000 years ago.

The fossils, which include part of a thigh bone and a shin bone, were recovered from the Penghu Channel between Taiwan and mainland China.

An analysis of proteins preserved inside the bones linked both specimens to the Denisovan lineage, which once inhabited vast areas of eastern Asia.

Scientists estimated that the individual represented by the thigh bone stood around five feet 11 inches tall and weighed 183 pounds.

The individual represented by the shin bone may have reached approximately six feet three inches and weighed 201 pounds, making him substantially taller than the average man today, which is five feet, nine inches.

Their extraordinary dimensions led independent researcher Jimmy Corsetti to suggest that Denisovans may have inspired stories about the Nephilim, mysterious beings mentioned in the Bible and often interpreted as giants.

The fact that the fossils were retrieved from the seabed has also fueled his speculation connecting them to the biblical account of the Great Flood.

However, the study presents no evidence linking Denisovans to the Nephilim or a global biblical flood, and its findings have not yet been peer reviewed.

Corsetti posted on X: ‘New discovery indicates that Denisovans were 8in TALLER than the average man today.

‘I’ve asked before, and I’ll ask again: Were Denisovans the “Nephilim Giants” described in the Bible?

‘Btw, the discovered bones were found on the SEAFLOOR! Gee, almost as if a Great Flood actually happened… (it did, regardless if these bones are of an unrelated timeframe).’

The Nephilim are mentioned twice in the Old Testament: first in Genesis 6:4, shortly before the account of the Great Flood, and again in Numbers 13:33.

They are described more extensively in Chapters 6 through 15 of the Book of the Watchers, the first section of the ancient religious work known as 1 Enoch.

The account says fallen angels called the Watchers took human wives, who gave birth to enormous and violent giants that brought chaos and bloodshed to Earth.

It says God ultimately condemned the Watchers and giants, sent a great flood to cleanse the world and declared that the dead giants’ spirits would remain on Earth as evil spirits.

While Corsetti has connected the discovery to ancient religious accounts, the researchers focused instead on what the enormous bones reveal about the Denisovans’ previously unknown bodies.

The researchers, led by the University of Tokyo, said in the study: ‘Our findings demonstrate that the Denisovan population at the northern circle had larger body size than earlier Homo erectus as well as Late Pleistocene Homo sapiens in eastern Asia.

‘This challenges the generally held expectation that Pleistocene Homo followed Bergmann’s rule that anticipates latitudinal decline of body size, and suggests that the large Denisovan brain resulted from their large body size at least partly.’

Researchers could not determine the individuals’ sex from biological evidence, but the enormous size of the bones suggests they probably came from males.

The possible sizes of these individuals would have placed them among the largest known ancient humans from the Ice Age.

Because neither fossil was complete, the team reconstructed its original size by comparing it with similarly shaped leg bones from ancient and modern humans.

The thigh bone, known as Penghu 2, was estimated to have measured about 19.3 inches when complete. Penghu 3, the shin bone, was probably around 17 inches long and contained a bulge caused by a healed injury.

The Denisovans were an estimated eight to 12 inches taller and 44 to 66 pounds heavier than Homo erectus individuals that lived in northern China about 750,000 years ago.

Previous Denisovan fossils had revealed that the population possessed large brains, powerful jaws and unusually large teeth. 

However, the scarcity of bones from below the skull had prevented scientists from confidently reconstructing their overall height and build.

The Penghu fossils now add enormous, heavily built bodies to that emerging portrait.

Their size also challenges Bergmann’s rule, which predicts that human populations living closer to the equator should generally be smaller than those in colder northern climates.

The researchers said the cold period during which the Penghu Denisovans lived cannot, by itself, explain their extraordinary proportions.

Chemical evidence from the shin bone suggests that the individual ate a meat-heavy diet, while other discoveries indicate Denisovans hunted animals ranging from mountain-dwelling goats and sheep to huge herbivores and carnivores.

The team proposed that large, powerful bodies may have helped Denisovans pursue prey using a different and potentially less sophisticated set of tools than early modern humans.

The thigh bone also possesses a thick, angular ridge along its rear that is more commonly associated with modern humans. In hunter-gatherers, this feature has been linked to extensive movement over land.

Researchers said it could indicate that the Taiwanese Denisovans led highly mobile lives similar to early modern humans.

Another possibility is that Denisovans acquired the feature by interbreeding with Homo sapiens, as genetic evidence shows the groups exchanged DNA in southern Asia.

However, the team stressed that more Denisovan fossils and genetic evidence will be required to explain the unusual trait and determine whether such large bodies were widespread across the population.