A skull was found in China, which may belong to an unknown race of people
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Jawbone fragments found in China show features of both modern and archaic humans. Anthropologists in China have found fragments of a lower jaw that probably belonged to an unknown human lineage, Live science reports. According to a new study, the bone, which is about 300,000 years old, belonged to a teenager and has a unique mosaic of ancient and modern features. Researchers discovered a nearly complete skull, which they named HLD 6. Computer reconstruction of skull and jaw fragments found in China. Image: See Eurekalert Initial studies in 2019 and 2021 indicated that the person who owned the bone was 12-13 years old. She had a modern human face, but her skull was more like the skull of the earliest Homo sapiens. After discovering a new fragment of the lower jaw in December 2020, researchers examined and reconstructed the bone for further analysis. They presented their findings in a research paper published on July 31, 2023 in the Journal of Human Evolution. Scientists made 20 measurements of the lower jaw and compared it with 83 previously excavated. Although HLD 6 has modern human-like features in the facial bones, its lower jaw has a more complex set of features consistent with the diversity of the human species in the Middle Pleistocene. This means that ancient humans could be related to Homo sapiens, Neanderthals or Denisovans, or could be a completely different species. Chris Stringer, head of human evolution research at the Natural History Museum in London, who was not involved in the study, said the skull and lower jaw were very interesting, but he did not think HLD 6 was closely related to Homo sapiens. “The data presented show a distinct combination of traits that supports the idea of a third human lineage in China, not Sapiens or Neanderthals,” he said. More research is needed to fully understand how our species evolved, intermingled and moved around the world, Stringer said. “In vast areas of Africa and Southeast Asia, not a single ancient bone or skull has yet been found, although stone tools show that humans were there, and there is only one significant fossil of ancient man in the entire Indian subcontinent.” says the scientist. Over the past decade, researchers have found the remains of at least 16 people in east-central China, about 1,200 km south of Beijing. Preliminary analysis of the remains showed that they date from 275,000 to 331,000 years ago, or the Late Middle Pleistocene epoch, from 2.6 million to 11.7 thousand years ago. This period is key to understanding the evolution of our human lineage. Research is complicated by the presence of other, now-extinct branches of the human tree, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. It will be recalled that archaeologists in Spain found evidence of cannibalism among Neanderthals who lived more than 53,000 years ago. Read also: Homo sapiens appeared 100 thousand years earlier – scientists
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