’Enigma Man’ may be new human species that lived until 11,000 years ago
Source: smh.com.au
Has an Australian scientist been instrumental in helping discover a new species of human? And what does this mean for our understanding of human evolutionary history?
These are two questions at the heart of a new documentary screening this week on ABC1.
With Enigma Man we follow the groundbreaking research of Aussie paleoanthropologist Darren Curnoe and his Chinese colleague, paleontologist Ji Xueping.
Their study of ancient human remains found in a remote cave in South-west China looks at the idea there may have been another species of human existing alongside our ancestors as recently as 11,000 – 14,000 years ago.
Dubbed the ’‘Red Deer Cave people’’, these ancient people, or, more precisely, their remains – so similar, yet so physically different from us – are much, much younger than our Neanderthal relatives, posing some seriously interesting questions. Were they really another human species? And if so, what happened to them? Why did they die out? How did they live? And what were their interactions with our own early relatives?
These are indeed big questions, Curnoe says, and that’s what makes the search for answers so fascinating.
Enigma Man: A figure based on the remains found in a remote cave in South West China.
“The documentary is about the process of deciding: do we have a new species or not?” Curnoe, who is Associate Professor of evolutionary biology in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at UNSW, explains.
“The fossils just don’t fit with the dominant view in science at the moment about who was around 11,000 years ago or 14,000 years ago, how they relate to us, and how we think of ourselves as humans in relation to nature.
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Read the full article at: smh.com.au
The Red Deer People - Human fossils hint at new species
The remains of some of the individuals come from Maludong (or Red Deer Cave), near the city of Mengzi in Yunnan Province. A further skeleton was discovered at Longlin, in neighbouring Guangxi Province.
The skulls and teeth from the two locations are very similar to each other, suggesting they are from the same population.
But their features are quite distinct from what you might call a fully modern human, says the team. Instead, the Red Deer Cave people have a mix of archaic and modern characteristics.
In general, the individuals had rounded brain cases with prominent brow ridges. Their skull bones were quite thick. Their faces were quite short and flat and tucked under the brain, and they had broad noses.
Their jaws jutted forward but they lacked a modern-human-like chin. Computed Tomography (X-ray) scans of their brain cavities indicate they had modern-looking frontal lobes but quite archaic-looking anterior, or parietal, lobes. They also had large molar teeth.
Dr Curnoe and colleagues put forward two possible scenarios in their PLoS One paper for the origin of the Red Deer Cave population.
One posits that they represent a very early migration of a primitive-looking Homo sapiens that lived separately from other forms in Asia before dying out.
Another possibility contends that they were indeed a distinct Homo species that evolved in Asia and lived alongside our own kind until remarkably recently.
A third scenario being suggested by scientists not connected with the research is that the Red Deer Cave people could be hybrids.
Tune into Red Ice Radio:
Danny Vendramini - Them & Us: Neanderthal Predation Theory
Troy McLachlan & Theodore Holden - Hour 1 - Cosmos in Collision: Antique Solar System, Neanderthals & Modern Man
Vahan Setyan - Hour 1 - Armenian Roots of Civilization & The Armenian Genocide
Frank Salter - War on Human Nature, Replacement Level Migration in the West & Crime of Diversity
Brien Foerster & L.A. Marzulli - Hour 1 - Paracas Elongated Skull DNA Analysis & The Nephilim Connection
Ross Hamilton, Jim Vieira & Hugh Newman - Hour 1 - Giants, Mound Builders & Etheric Energy
Lloyd Pye, Brien Foerster & Jerry Wills - Hour 1 & 2 - Human Origins & Lost Races
Richard J. Dewhurst - Hour 1 - The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America
Gregg Braden - Crisis in Thinking & False Assumptions of an Incomplete Science
Roundtable - Hour 1 - Man’s Genesis & The Future Direction of Humanity