admin A roughly 300,000 year-old specimen mixes traits of Homo erectus and Denisovans.
A 300,000-year-old fossil skull discovered in China turns out to be an evolutionary puzzle. The Late Middle Pleistocene specimen is unlike other skulls discovered at the time and may indicate a previously unknown human species. The results were published last month in the Journal of Human Evolution.
A team of scientists from institutions in Spain, the UK and China discovered the mandible – or mandible – and 15 other distinct specimens in the Hualongdong region of eastern China in 2015. The lower jaw in question is named HLD 6 and dates from a pivotal time. in human evolution, just before some of the features still found in modern humans began to evolve in East Asia.
The study notes that HLD 6 is “surprise” because it does not currently correspond to any known taxonomic group. The skull shows facial features similar to early modern humans. This skull likely belonged to a direct human ancestor named Homo erectus about 550,000 to 750,000 years ago.
However, it also shares some of the characteristics of the Denisovans, who belong on a different branch on the human family tree than Homo Erectus. HLD 6 does not appear to have a chin, just like previously discovered Denisovan specimens. Denisovans are now extinct and split from Neanderthals about 400,000 years ago.
Given that the specimen has a mixture of Homo erectus and Denisovan characteristics, they believe this was potentially a hybrid of modern human and ancient hominid. The team notes that this combination of facial features hasn’t been observed in East Asia hominids, which suggests that some of the traits found in modern humans began to appear as far back as 300,000 years ago.
They think the fossil belongs to a child 12-13 years old. The team did not have adult skulls from the same species for comparison, but they used skulls from the Middle and Late Pleistocene of similar maturity. They found that the shape patterns remained the same regardless of age, which they say supports the hypothesis that it could be another human species.
The story of the human family tree is constantly evolving as scientists develop better techniques for finding and analyzing specimens. A study published in June found that humans entered the forests of Asia about 400,000 years earlier than previously thought.Humans and Neanderthals may also have interbred earlier and in three separate waves that eventually led to Neanderthals’ extinction.
If this new theory is proven correct, a new branch of “pre-sapiens specimens” could be added to this complex family tree and provide a better understanding of human evolution.
