Mysterious Chinese Fossils May Be New Human Species
“Mysterious fossils of what may be a previously unknown type of human have been uncovered in caves in China, ones that possess a highly unusual mix of bygone and modern human features, scientists reveal.
“Surprisingly, the fossils are only between 11,500 and 14,500 years old. That means they would have shared the landscape with modern humans when China’s earliest farmers were first appearing.
“‘These new fossils might be of a previously unknown species, one that survived until the very end of the ice age around 11,000 years ago,’ said researcher Darren Curnoe, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
“‘Alternatively, they might represent a very early and previously unknown migration of modern humans out of Africa, a population who may not have contributed genetically to living people,’ Curnoe added….”
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more from dienekes.
(note: comments do not require an email. or are the red deer cave people “nothing extraordinary”?)
Wow. Our view of the recent past just keeps getting more and more interesting. The world just 15,000 years ago was an amazing place, full of megafauna and possibly several human species. This stuff just keep coming…
@r. right – “The world just 15,000 years ago was an amazing place, full of megafauna and possibly several human species.”
pretty neat, huh?! (^_^)
Looks a bit like a giant Homo floresiensis.
@harold – “Looks a bit like a giant Homo floresiensis.”
i don’t think these new guys have freakishly small brain cases, tho.
Recently Razib Khan talked about speculation that modern races could be the product of farming not representative of ancient variation. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/03/race-maybe-its-agriculture/
Maybe there being just one species of humans currently around is also a temporary side effect of human farming.
Interesting that they found it in Yunnan Province, which is in the very south of China. When I saw that and when they had dated the skeleton, I immediately thought of a connection to the Denisovans, who have genetic links to the Melanesians, Australian Aborigines, and some of the Phillipine negritos, and judging by the story you linked to and the New Scientist article on the same topic, I was not alone in that thought. Obviously, Yunnan is still well within the Asian continent, but it’s much closer to Mindanao, Melanesia, and Australia than Denisova is.
@r.a. – “When I saw that and when they had dated the skeleton, I immediately thought of a connection to the Denisovans, who have genetic links to the Melanesians, Australian Aborigines, and some of the Phillipine negritos, and judging by the story you linked to and the New Scientist article on the same topic, I was not alone in that thought.”
yeah. cool, huh?! (^_^)