A prehistoric human fossil discovered in China has been found not resembling any culled hominin in the past.
Distinct Skull Resembles No One
According to Science Alert, the fossil remains do not resemble the Neanderthals, Denisovans, nor homo sapiens. Hence, these puzzling findings suggest that the human family tree could be up for revisions to welcome a different branch of ancestors. Business Insider also adds that if the bones point an unknown human ancestor, it could end up rewriting the plot of human evolution.
The creature has been dubbed HLD 6; and its leg, jaw, and skull bones are yet to be classified. The bones were found in Hualongdong in 2019. Since then, specialists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have been baffled by its place in the known family tree.
The fossilized skull and jaw have been seen to point to a 12- to 13-year-old. While it harbors feature that are similar to modern humans, its skull camp, limbs, and jaws appear to have more primitive qualities.
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Hybrid Hominin?
Interestingly, HLD 6 does not match any species of homo erectus, thedebrief.org explains. Rather than this, the remains match more recent hominins.
The facial structure of the remains of the individuals was found to be starkly similar to that of modern humans, which dileneated from the Homo erectus species around 750,000 years ago. However, the individual has been found to be lacking a chin. This, in turn, makes it similar to Denisovans, which are distinct ancient hominin species that separated from Neanderthals over 400,000 years ago.
As Business Insider noted, researchers think that the individual is a hybrid that comprises modern humans and a mysterious hominin that lived in ancient China. The research was detailed in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Researchers at CAS have worked together with esteemed specialists from the University of York at the UK from the Xi'an Jiaotong University at China and the National Research Center on Human Evolution at Spain. Overall, the researchers now think that they were actually able to uncover a previously unknown hybrid hominin species.
Science Alert adds that, considering historical records, several hominin remains that date back to the Pleistocene and that were found in China have not been found to easily match a single particular lineage. Because of this, these remains tend to be described as intermediate variations that paved a path toward the modern human lineage.
In the past, genomic studies on the remains of Neanderthals across western Asia and Europe have offered proof that a fourth hominin lineage lived in the Middle to Late Pleistocene era.
However, this mysterious link has not been concretely documented in the fossil record. Science Alert explains that these findings in China could be the missing puzzle piece.
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