Scientists have conducted new analysis on a 300,000-year-old fossil found in China’s Hualongdong (HLD) region in 2015 that may belong to an unknown human species, according to an upcoming study in the Journal of Human Evolution set to be published in Sept. 2023.
The fossils, called HLD 6, that archeologists uncovered at the site look human, and have all of the key indicators that they belong to a species of human, but it’s totally unclear which species that is, the study says (in far more complicated terms). The researchers found an almost-complete mandible and partial cranium that appear to fit together as a skull. Several leg bones were also uncovered.
But the mandible (jaw) has traits that seem to belong to both early and ancient humans, such as Neanderthals, something that hasn’t been seen before. “The weak expression of all these features indicates that this mandible does not possess a true chin,” the authors note, suggesting that the remains belong to someone who was more closely related to ancient humans than modern species.
“HLD hominins would support the appearance of modern morphologies related to the H. sapiens clade in Asia as early as about 300 ka”
Our new paper on the Hualongdong (China) hominin mandible can be downloaded here:https://t.co/xvCOtQVPr5$@CENIEH@Jmbdecastro #ICTSNews pic.twitter.com/nI1qL0fy2t
— María Martinón-Torres (@MMartinonT) August 1, 2023
The discovery and accompanying data has changed the “traditional” view of human evolution, pushing the timeline on early modern humans back further than initially assumed, the Debrief noted.
Many “late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils have been found in China” over the last 50 years, cultivating a lineal and uniform evolution of humans. These individuals were believed to be the intermediate species between the now-extinct Homo erectus, and early modern humans. (RELATED: ‘Wiped Out In The Blink Of An Eye’: Archaeologist Claims He Has Found The Biblical City Of Sodom)
“The hominin fossil discovery and related studies in the last decade have changed this traditional view on the evolution pattern of the late Middle Pleistocene hominins in China radically,” the authors noted.
