Zhang Dongju

Zhang's work is considered likely to prompt reconsideration of other fossil remains using ancient protein analysis.

From September 2004, she pursued graduate studies at Lanzhou University,[1] where she joined the group of climatologist Chen Fahu.

[2] She was a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles in the United States from January 2008 to September 2009, and then at Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Germany from October 2009 to March 2010.

[8] In 2016 Zhang and colleagues started working with Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute to use ancient protein analysis.

The team dug two trenches in which they found animal bones with cut marks and a large number of stone tools.

[3][12][13][14] It is also the first evidence they lived at high altitudes, as the Denisova Cave is only 2,300 feet (700 meters) above sea level.

[3] Denisovan DNA, specifically the EPAS1 allele, has been considered to be what allows Sherpas and Tibetans to live at high altitudes in low-oxygen environments.