Scientists have discovered a new species of people, presumably belonging to the genus Homo. Now the experts have to prove the correctness of their hypothesis.
According to paleontologists, the remains of people in the Red Deer Cave (China) do not belong to the Cro-Magnon subspecies, but to a separate species of people. These creatures lived on the territory of modern southeastern China about 14, 5-11, 5 thousand years ago, which is extremely small by the standards of evolution.
Most of the dead-end branches of the genus Homo died out at least 50 thousand years before the appearance of modern humans in Asia. But the creatures to whom the remains belong could well have lived side by side with the first farmers of the Celestial Empire. Hypothetically, they could survive to this day, if they found themselves in isolated conditions. Thus, we are talking about the last "non-sapiens" from among those who lived on the territory of mainland Eurasia.
“It seems that southern China in ancient times was dominated by a diversity of people, many of whom have recently disappeared,” said researcher Darren Carno (Darren Curnoe), of the Australian University of New South Wales. Note that four skeletons were found in the Red Deer Cave a long time ago - in 1989. However, serious research began only in the late 2000s. At different times, experts drew attention to such a difference between these creatures as the unusual shape of the skull, but until recently, conclusions regarding the discovery of a new species were made very carefully.
Now scientists have compared the anatomy of the tibia of creatures with the device of the same bone in Cro-Magnons, Neanderthals, Homo habilis and Homo erectus. Its small size indicates a close relationship of the representatives of the species with the latter two, but in this case it is difficult to talk about the relationship with Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals.
The mass of the creatures did not exceed 50 kg, and their height was no higher than 140 cm. Scientists consider it surprising that the new species has lived for so long in southeastern China and at the same time left no traces in other places on our planet.
The conclusions about the discovery of a new species have yet to be confirmed. The discovery of the remains of Homo erectus and Homo habilis living in Asia can help scientists. In general, if the conclusions are confirmed, the picture of human evolution will only be complicated.
We will remind, earlier other researchers stated that a new species of humanoid creatures was found, which were an amazing mixture of modern humans and ancient, more primitive hominids. Some have even claimed to have found one important missing link in evolution. The shape of the skull, small teeth, and long legs of the creature allowed it to be attributed to the genus Homo.