[1][2] The remains consist of a single bone—left femur—of a male hunter-gatherer, which was discovered in 2008[3] protruding from the bank of the Irtysh River by Nikolai Peristov, a Russian sculptor who specialises in carving mammoth ivory.

Examination of the sequenced genome indicates that Ust'-Ishim man lived at a point in time between the first wave of anatomically modern humans (270,000 years ago) that migrated out of Africa and the divergence of that population into distinct populations (45,000 years ago), in terms of autosomal DNA in different parts of Eurasia.

[10] The genomic sequencing of Ust'-Ishim man has led to refinement of the estimated date of mating between the two hominin species to between 52,000 and 58,000 years ago.

Ust'-Ishim was equally related to modern East Asians, Oceanians and certain ancient West Eurasian populations, such as the Goyet specimen.

[21] In 2022, a study determined that the Ust'Ishim man was part of an Initial Upper Paleolithic wave (>45kya) "ascribed to a population movement with uniform genetic features and material culture" (Ancient East Eurasians), and sharing deep ancestry with the Bacho Kiro, Oase and the Tianyuan man, as well as ancestors of modern-day Papuans (Australasians).