«Unlike any other human fossil»
Scientists intrigued by 300,000-year-old prehistoric skull found in China look like no other ancient skull ever seen human skull.
The 300,000-year-old ancient skull looks like no other fossil, according to new research person ever found before modern times, and potentially points to a new branch in the human family tree.
According to CNN, an international team of researchers from China, Spain and the United Kingdom unearthed the skull — in particular, the lower jaw — in the Hualongdong region of eastern China back in 2015, along with 15 other specimens believed to be from the Late Middle Pleistocene.
Scientists believe that the Late Middle Pleistocene, which began about 300,000 years ago, was a turning point in the evolution of hominins — species considered human or closely related, including modern humans.
Published July 31 in the Journal of Human Evolution, a research team study found that the mandible, known as HLD 6, is «unexpected» and does not fit into any existing taxonomic group.
According to the study, many of the Pleistocene hominin fossils found in China were also difficult to classify and were previously considered anomalies. However, this discovery, along with other recent studies, is gradually changing what people know about the evolutionary pattern at the end of the Middle Pleistocene.
Comparing the lower jaw of HLD 6 to those of Pleistocene hominins and modern humans, the researchers found that it shares features of both, says CNN.
It is similar in shape to the lower jaw of Homo sapiens, our modern human species , which is descended from Homo erectus. But it also shares similarities with another branch that developed from Homo erectus, – Denisovans. Like Denisovans, HLD 6 does not seem to have a chin.
“HLD6 does not have a true chin, but has some subtle features that seem to anticipate this typical H. sapiens feature”, – said study author Maria Martinon-Torres, director of the National Research Center for Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Spain.
Thus, the remains found in Hualongdong «are the earliest fossil population known in Asia, which represents this mosaic primitive features and features similar to Homo sapiens», – she added.
The researchers suggest that HLD 6 must belong to an as-yet-unnamed classification, and that modern human characteristics may have been present as early as 300,000 years ago – before the advent of modern humans in East Asia.
The researchers also took into account the age of the person who owned the jawbone, since the shape of the skull in children and adults may differ.
HLD 6 is believed to belong to 12 — 13 year old teenager. Although the researchers did not have an adult skull of the same species for comparison, they studied the skulls of middle and late Pleistocene hominids of similar and adult age and found that their shape remained the same regardless of age, further supporting the scientists' theory, CNN notes. en.
According to Maria Martinon-Torres, additional work is required to properly position the HLD 6. “More fossils and research are needed to understand their exact position in the human family tree”– she said.