Homo juruensis Emerging human species, including the mysterious Denisovans and several hominid fossils from Tibet, Taiwan and Laos, lived in East Asia from about 300,000 to 50,000 years ago.
Portrait of a young Denisovan woman based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Image credit: Maayan Harel.
“Our research uncovered a hominin fossil record that tended to include things that were not easily attributable. homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis or homo sapiens'' said the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Professor Christopher Bay and Dr. Wu Xiujie from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“We started this project several years ago, but we never expected that we would be able to propose a new hominin species, and even classify Asian hominid fossils into different groups. In general, this should be useful for scientific communication.”
“This research is important because it will help scientists better understand the complex story of human evolution in Asia and fill gaps in our understanding of our ancient relatives.”
reconstruction of homo floresiensis. Image credit: Elizabeth Danes.
The authors suggest that there are at least four human species. homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, Homolonghiand the newly established Homo juruensis — Existed in East Asia during the late Quaternary period.
Homo juruensis They lived in East Asia about 300,000 years ago, hunted wild horses in small groups, made stone tools and probably processed animal skins to survive, and disappeared about 50,000 years ago. Ta.
“The field of late Quaternary East Asian paleoanthropology is in the midst of significant and important changes, largely due to the growth of the hominin fossil record, as we look to change these evolutionary models. “This is a major contribution to how we understand and refine this approach,” the researchers said.
“This field in particular was shocked 20 years ago with the publication of this little book. homo floresiensis Fossils discovered on Flores Island, Indonesia in 2004. ”
“Just recently, another small species… Homo luzonensisAn individual living on the island of Luzon in the Philippines has been added as a new hominin. ”
“In China, Homo longhi It was published after the analysis of Harbin fossils. ”
“Fossils like Dali and Jinyushan may be tentatively included.” Homolonghi Similarly, we await further comparative analysis. ”
“More recently, after detailed studies of the Xujiayao and Xuchang fossils, we have added: Homo juruensis to these discussions. ”
Reconstruction of Homolonghi In his habitat. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.
Importantly, along with the Xiahe people, scientists have also assigned the mysterious Denisovans. Penghu CountyTam Ngu Hao 2 fossil, Homo juruensis.
Although further research is clearly needed to verify this relationship, it is primarily based on similarities between jaw and tooth fossils from these different locations.
“The East Asian hominin fossil record is a good example of how unilinear evolutionary models, such as traditional multiregionalism, cannot adequately account for the complexity of the paleoanthropological record, especially in the late Quaternary.” the authors concluded.
“Rather, the East Asian record prompts us to recognize how complex human evolution is more generally, and to revise the interpretations of various evolutionary models to better match the growing fossil record.” , it’s really forcing us to reconsider.”
Their paper Published in a magazine nature communications.
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CJ Bae & X. Wu. 2024. Understanding late Quaternary hominin diversity in East Asia. Nat Commune 15, 9479;doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53918-7
Source: www.sci.news
