Chinese scientists have found fairly complete remains of a hominin jaw and skull from about 300,000 years ago at Hualongdong (HLD), East China, with a mix of archaic and modern features. The specimen appears to be a pre-pubescent child of about 12-13 years of age. The correct classification of the species of the hominin bones is uncertain, in the absence of ancient DNA (trade press article here; journal article here).
If the specimen is correctly dated, it shouldn't be a modern human, as the Homo sapien species was just barely emerging in Africa at the time and should not have reached Asia by that point.
But, the specimen seems different in important respects from Homo erectus as well in its characteristics. As such, the specimen is a candidate for an East Asian Denisovan, a sister clade to Neanderthals for which no sufficiently complete type fossil has been secured despite the fact that ancient DNA samples have been obtained and that genetic traces of ancient admixture between Denisovans and modern humans is well established in Asia, Australia and Oceania. The specimen could also be from a Denisovan-Homo Erectus hybrid individual, or from some new previously unknown hominin species.
1 comment:
Denisovan-Homo Erectus hybrid individual
many ancient hominin were hybrid individual
I propose multi hybrid theory that all ancient hominin were hybrid individual
Post a Comment