admin Scientists have discovered a 300,000-year-old fossilized jawbone in a cave in eastern China; it could represent a new branch in the human evolutionary tree.
It is interesting to see how the example combines elements from the past and present.
This raises further questions about the nature of the prehistoric populations that lived there for about 800,000 years between the Middle and Late Pleistocene.
The lower jaw, as in Homo sapiens, has no real chin.
The lower jaw was discovered in Hualongdong, a region in eastern China, and exhibits both modern and ancient features.
Early human species such as Homo erectus had strong jaws with them.
In addition, the real chin that characterizes Homo sapiens is missing. However, the side of the lower jaw that connects to the upper jaw is more similar to that of modern humans and is thinner than that of early hominids.
Early Homo sapiens may have shared a common ancestor with us
According to paleoanthropologist Xiujie Wu, who was involved in the study, the Hualongdong people may be an early ancestor of Homo sapiens or a close cousin who has never been identified.
The Hualongdong mandible exhibits features of both past and present, similar to remains discovered at the Moroccan archaeological site of Jebel Irhoud in the early 21st century.
The Jebel Irhoud bones are believed to represent an early member of the Homo sapiens evolutionary lineage.
Understanding the Pleistocene human ancestry of East Asia
“More fossils and studies are necessary to understand [the Hualongdong people’s] precise position in the human family tree,” mentioned Martinón-Torres, a team member.
She asserted that ancient proteins taken from bones could provide more information about the Hualongdong people’s relationships with both more primitive species and modern humans.
Researchers found the bones of 16 people during cave excavations in China. Numerous of these remains were discovered to be those of a 12- to 13-year-old boy’s cranium.
It is unclear how humans have occupied East Asia
Yameng Zhang of Shandong University claims that the image of human occupancy in East Asia throughout the Pleistocene is unclear.It is unclear which of the various species of archaic hominids that lived in East Asia during the Middle Pleistocene may have been the ancestors of modern humans.
Source: https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/…
