23 September 2023 The Future is the Product of the Past

Homo Bodoensis may be the ancestor of modern humans

Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineages, their kinship with other human species that roamed the world is still controversial. Scientists have now identified a new species that could be the ancestor of modern humans.

In a newly published study, scientists describe H. bodoensis as a new species and suggest it as the ancestor of Homo sapiens.

Researchers examined human fossils dating from around 774,000 to 129,000 years ago in the latest study (once known as the Middle Pleistocene and now renamed the Chibanian). Previous research claimed that modern humans evolved in Africa around this period, whereas Neanderthals arose in Eurasia. However, much about this pivotal period in human development remains unknown – a situation paleoanthropologists refer to as “the mess in the middle.”

Human fossils from the Chibanian period from Africa and Eurasia are frequently attributed to one of two species: Homo heidelbergensis or Homo rhodesiensis. However, these species frequently held variously and frequently conflicting, descriptions of their skeletal features and other attributes.

Homo bodoensis may help to untangle how human lineages moved and interacted across the globe. (Photo: Ettore Mazza)
Homo bodoensis may help to untangle how human lineages moved and interacted across the globe. (Photo: Ettore Mazza)

Recent DNA research has indicated that certain H. heidelbergensis bones discovered in Europe were really from early Neanderthals. As a result, the scientists recognized that H. heidelbergensis was a redundant designation in such circumstances.

Similarly, current examinations of several East Asian fossils indicate that they should no longer be referred to as H. heidelbergensis, according to the researchers. Many facial and other traits seen in Chibanian East Asian human fossils, for example, differ from those found in European and African fossils of the same period. Furthermore, African Chibanian specimens are occasionally referred to as both H. heidelbergensis and H. rhodesiensis. The researchers also highlighted that H. rhodesiensis was a poorly defined term that was never widely recognized in science, owing in part to its link with problematic English imperialist Cecil Rhodes.

To help clear up the uncertainty, the researchers have proposed the possibility of a new species, H. bodoensis, named after a 600,000-year-old skull discovered in 1976 in Bodo D’ar, Ethiopia. Many fossils formerly identified as H. heidelbergensis or H. rhodesiensis would be included under this new designation. The researchers believe H. bodoensis was the direct ancestor of H. sapiens, forming a different branch of the human family tree than the one that gave rise to the Neanderthals and the enigmatic Denisovans, who were thought to have lived around the same time as their Neanderthal cousins based on Siberian and Tibetan fossils.

Homo bodoensis was named after a 600,000-year-old skull found in Ethiopia.  (Photo: Ettore Mazza)
Homo bodoensis was named after a 600,000-year-old skull found in Ethiopia. (Photo: Ettore Mazza)

H. bodoensis will be used to characterize the majority of Chibanian human fossils from Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean in this new classification. Many European Chibanian human remains might be classed as Neanderthals. H. heidelbergensis and H. rhodesiensis would then go extinct. More investigation into Chibanian human fossils from East Asia may result in their own names.

“Giving a new name to a species is always controversial,” study co-lead author Mirjana Roksandic, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Winnipeg in Canada, told Live Science. “However, if people start using it, it will survive and live.”

“We are not claiming to rewrite human evolution,” Roksandic said. Instead, the researchers seek to organize the variation seen in ancient humans “in a way that makes it possible to discuss where it comes from and what it represents,” she explained. “Those differences can help us understand movement and interaction.”

Mirjana Roksandic, the researchers want to see if they can find any H. bodoensis specimens in Europe from the Chibanian, Roksandic said.

The scientists detailed their findings online on October 28 in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues News, and Reviews.

Cover Photo: Ottigo

Banner
Related Post

Huge funerary building and Fayoum portraits discovered in Egypt Fayoum

4 December 2022

4 December 2022

The Egyptian archaeological mission working in the Gerza archaeological site in Fayoum revealed a huge funerary building from the Ptolemaic...

Archaeologists find sunken ancient Egyptian warship under Abu Qir Bay

26 July 2021

26 July 2021

According to a press release by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Egyptian French archaeological mission of the...

Mesolithic stone mace head found during excavation of a site near Buckingham

4 April 2023

4 April 2023

Archaeologists discovered an attractive Mesolithic stone mace head while excavation of a site near Buckingham. The work was done by...

An Elamite inscription attributed to Xerxes the Great was found at Persepolis

26 February 2022

26 February 2022

During the classification and documentation project of inscribed objects and fragmentary inscriptions in the Persepolis Museum reserves, experts discovered a...

Human history in one click: Database with 2,400 prehistoric sites

10 August 2023

10 August 2023

The role of culture in human spread: Digital data collection contains 150 years of research. Human history in one click:...

The First Dinosaurs Discovered in Japan From the Late Cretaceous Period

30 April 2021

30 April 2021

Yamatosaurus Izanagii, a new genus, and species of hadrosaur or duck-billed dinosaur have been discovered on one of Japan’s southern...

After 85 years of adventure, Globetrotting Mycenaean gold ring returns home

3 June 2022

3 June 2022

The 3,000-year-old gold Mycenaean ring, stolen from the Rhodes Archaeological Museum during World War II and later bought by a...

Dark secrets of Korea’s famous Wolseong palace complex are unearthed

8 September 2021

8 September 2021

The remains of an adult woman were discovered at the base of the Wolseong palace in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang province,...

The 8,000-year-old Aslantepe in Turkey has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List

26 July 2021

26 July 2021

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Monday that a rich, 30-meter-high archaeological mound going back 8,000 years in southern Turkey has...

1,800 years old Sewer system found in ancient city of Mastaura

17 May 2022

17 May 2022

Archaeologists found an 1800-year-old sewer system during excavations in the ancient city of Mastaura, in the Nazilli district of Aydın...

Excavations in and around Yazıkaya, one of the monumental works of the Phrygians, start again after 71 years.

23 July 2022

23 July 2022

Archaeological excavations at Midas Castle in Yazılıkaya Midas Valley in the Han district of Eskişehir, located in northwest Turkey, will...

World-first recreation of ancient Egyptian garden open

20 May 2022

20 May 2022

Have you ever wondered what an ancient Egyptian garden was like?  This is your opportunity to find out! The first...

Excavations of Aççana Mound, the Capital of the Mukish Kingdom, Continue

16 July 2021

16 July 2021

2021 excavations have started at Aççana Höyük, the old city of Alalah, in Hatay’s Reyhanlı district. The ancient city of...

15 new sculptures discovered in Turkey’s sculpture paradise Yesemek

8 December 2021

8 December 2021

Archaeologists discovered 15 new sculptures during recent digs around the Yesemek Open Air Museum and Sculpture Workshop in the Islahiye...

The earliest human remains 11,000-year-old discovered in northern Britain

25 January 2023

25 January 2023

An international team of archaeologists at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has discovered 11,000-year-old human remains in the Heaning...

Comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *