Ancient skulls suggest Denisovans entered Australia at least 300,000 years ago.

A land bridge connected Papua and Australia as early as 300,000 years ago. The two islands were again connected around 18,000 BP during the last Ice Age. Papua and Australia have never been connected to Southeast Asia, but the deep channel, which separates them from Asia is narrow enough to have been traversed in primitive crafts.

The newly discovered “Southern Denisovans” in Southeast Asia, Papua and Australia seem to be a much older hominid than the Siberian Denisovans, who were contemporary with and interbred with both Neanderthals and modern humans. Ancient skulls, discovered in Southeastern Australia, suggest that newly arrived Australoids around 60,000-50,000 years ago interbred with Southern Denisovans, already living there.