Further dating work, and the continued discovery and analysis of new material from the cave, will refine this picture. The cave has not yielded all its secrets. The rate of significant findings from this site over the past fifteen years suggests that there is more to come.
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## What the Next Generation of Research Will Look For
The Denisova 11 study demonstrated what is possible when a well-preserved ancient DNA sample is analyzed with the full complement of modern paleogenomic methods. It also clarified what the most important outstanding questions are and what kinds of evidence would begin to answer them.
The most pressing need is for Denisovan genomes from locations outside Denisova Cave—ideally from sites in Southeast Asia or island Southeast Asia, where the modern human-Denisovan admixture events that left the largest genetic legacy in living populations are likely to have occurred. Such genomes would allow direct comparison between the Altai Denisovans and the southern populations, establishing whether they were closely related or represented distinct lineages that had diverged significantly from a common ancestor.
The second need is for additional ancient human genomes from the period 100,000 to 50,000 years ago across East and Southeast Asia. This period is when the major population movements and admixture events that shaped the ancestry of living East Asian, Southeast Asian, and Oceanic populations were occurring. The ancient genomic record for this region and time period is currently sparse—far sparser than the record for Europe and western Asia, which has received more archaeological attention. Filling in this gap would transform the understanding of how modern human populations spread across Asia and encountered and interbred with archaic groups.