The Denisovans were an extinct population of human relatives that existed from approximately 500,000 years ago until sometime after 100,000 years ago. Their existence is known only from ancient DNA evidence from three fossil fragments from Denisova Cave, Russia. Although the overall geographic range and extinction time of the Denisovans are not known, genetic evidence shows them to have had a complex population history in which they mixed with other archaic populations and with modern humans. The legacy of Denisovan ancestry is strongest today in the peoples of Melanesia and in Aboriginal Australians.