Unique ancient skull is baffling scientists and could rewrite human evolution

[Buster's Uncle]

An ancient skull unlike any human ever seen is baffling scientists and could rewrite the story of our evolution
Marianne Guenot   Updated Mon, August 7, 2023 at 10:41 AM EDT
Business Insider



A 3D scan of facial remains shows what we know of the skull uncovered in East Asia. This skull's top is reminiscent of modern humans, but its chin is more like an archaic human.
A computer-generated image of the remains from the skull of HLD 6 (shown in yellow).Wu et al. PNAS 2019, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1902396116

• An ancient skull found in China is like nothing scientists have ever seen.
• The teen's head shape doesn't fit with any of the early human relatives seen to date.
• If it's an undiscovered human ancestor, it could rewrite the story of human evolution.

An ancient skull is baffling scientists because it looks unlike any known human ancestor.

The mystery 300,000-year-old skull of a child about 12 or 13 years old was first uncovered in Hualongdong in East China in 2019, alongside a leg bone.

Researchers think the individual, known only as HDL 6, is a mix between modern humans and an unknown hominin that existed in China at that time, Science Alert reported Monday.

The skull has facial features that are similar to early modern humans, which scientists think began to branch away from another human ancestor known as Homo erectus sometime between 550,000 and 750,000 years ago.

But its limbs, skull cap, and recessed chin "seem to reflect more primitive traits," Xiujie Wu, a paleontologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences wrote in an analysis of the bones published July 31.

These features are closer to a Denisovan's facial structure, a now-extinct branch of East Asian hominins that split from Neanderthals about 400,000 years ago.



An artist's impression of what a juvenile female Denisovan might have looked like.Maayan Harel


This strange skull shape has "never been recorded in late Middle Pleistocene hominin fossil assemblages in East Asia," scientists said in a recent analysis.

It is possible that the finding could rewrite what we know of human lineages in the area. It suggests Denisovan, Homo erectus, and this new lineage which is "phylogenetically close" to us may have co-existed in East Asia, per Science Alert.


Human history is messier than we thought

This isn't the first time human remains have shaken up the neat evolutionary path that is thought to have led to humans.

Many of us were taught that Homo sapiens emerged from Homo erectus in Sub-Saharan Africa about 200,000 years ago.

But the reality seems to be a lot more messy. Archaic Homo sapien fossils often carry a mixture of old facial structures and modern features so that timeline is a bit more complicated than school books would have us think.

That's the case, for instance, for remains found in Morocco in 2017 from about 300,000 years ago with Homo sapien-like features which suggested humans might have emerged much earlier than previously thought.

Recent findings of archaic human remains in Israel and Greece dating back about 200,000 years also suggested human ancestors might have left Africa a lot earlier than previously thought.



A model of a Neanderthal male in his twenties, which is on display at the Natural History Museum of London's "Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story" exhibition, September 2014.Will Oliver/PA Images/Getty


There's also paleontological and genetic evidence that suggests ancient humans interbred with the Neanderthals and Denisovans, their cousins, further complicating the bloodlines.

If proven correct, the East Asia findings could add another branch of "pre sapiens specimen," bringing more insight into the human tree of life.

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