RADIOLOGICAL MICROSCOPY OF THE HAND PHALANX OF A GIRL FROM DENISOVA CAVE* In 2010, data on the relict genome of Denisova Cave inhabitants were obtained. The source of DNA was the phalanx of the girl's hand. Modern microtomographic techniques open a new page in understanding the processes of morphogenesis in groups of fossil and modern humans, allowing us to work with the most fragmentary material. In this study of the phalanx of a Denisovskaya girl, a non-destructive radiological microscopy method was used to histologically determine the biological age, as well as to identify microstructural features in comparative illumination. It was found that the diaphyseal and metaphyseal sections of this bone were in the stage of active growth. The histological picture of the formation of the diaphyseal wall of the Denisovskaya girl indicates that her biological age corresponds to about 6-7 years of modern man. A completely different, "adult" histological picture was previously revealed in a juvenile Neanderthal from the Okladnikov cave. The similarity of some features of the growth and development of bones of modern humans and Denisovans suggests that the rate of pre-definitive ontogenesis was formed in the Early Paleolithic. The growth rate of Neanderthal children is peculiar, and this specificity probably appeared after the separation of this line of paleoanthropes from the common trunk. Keywords: Denisova cave, Pleistocene, girl's hand phalanx, radiological microscopy, histomorphometry, biological age, Denisovans, Neanderthals. Introduction In recent years, great progress has been made in the field of decoding the genomes of human fossils. In studies conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, the features of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA of representatives of different territorial groups of paleoanthropes were determined. It was possible to identify differences in the genomes of Neanderthal and modern humans, indicating the divergence o ... Read more