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Palaeontology

Fossils of new human species found in China

By T.K. Randall
March 16, 2012 · Comment icon 23 comments

Image Credit: Urville Djasim
The fossil remains of what is believed to be a new species of human have been unearthed.
Nicknamed the "Red Deer Cave people" after one of the sites at which they were discovered, the remains are being carefully examined by scientists to determine whether or not they are a new species. "We're trying to be very careful at this stage about definitely classifying them," said Darren Curnoe. "One of the reasons for that is that in the science of human evolution or palaeoanthropology, we presently don't have a generally agreed, biological definition for our own species (Homo sapiens), believe it or not. And so this is a highly contentious area." It will likely take some time before any definitive conclusions can be reached.
The remains of what may be a previously unknown human species have been identified in southern China. The bones, which represent at least five individuals, have been dated to between 11,500 and 14,500 years ago.


Source: BBC News | Comments (23)

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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #14 Posted by taiwan 12 years ago
Chance of extracting DNA is pretty slim. Remember we have 27,000 year old homo erectus found in Java we couldn't extract DNA from. Then there is homo floresiensis about 12,000 years ago found in Indoesia we also failed to extract its DNA. If these were found in Germany or Russia it should be a piece of cake. Southeast Asia is hot and humid which is not ideal for preserving DNA. We were able to extract DNA from Neanderthals that were much older. It's really a shame because we have so many hominin living within the last 100,000 years (DNA may survive that long under most ideal conditions). I hav... [More]
Comment icon #15 Posted by taiwan 12 years ago
Until DNA is extracted and analyzed, everything we say about this Red Deer species is purely speculation. The truth is we do NOT know what was really going on in Southeast Asia. Any expert in paleoanthropology who claim to know everything is full of it, let alone people like me who are not experts in this subject. The picture in Southeast Asia is extremely complicated. In addition to what we have in Red Deer Cave, I summarized 4 other key info that will show you how muddy the picture really is. (1) We have homo erectus surviving as recent as 27,000 years ago in Java. Did homo sapiens interbred... [More]
Comment icon #16 Posted by Stardrive 12 years ago
(4) We also have DNA from Lake Mungo Australia that turned out to be extinct subspecies of homo sapien. I don't understand why this is being ignored. I understand the result is being disputed. We don't have data such as when this species diverged with our common ancestor and a re-test seems to be in conflict with local custom. We have genome map from Neanderthal and Denisovan, I'd love to see Mungo man revisited and find out what's in those DNA. A tangled web mankind did weave. We're all hybrids! So be it. This is interesting about the Australian find because to my knowledge there isn't much i... [More]
Comment icon #17 Posted by taiwan 12 years ago
This is interesting about the Australian find because to my knowledge there isn't much in the Australian fossil record on primates or hominids.... that we've found as of yet. With Indonesia and the Australian continent being connected during the last ice age I'm surprised there aren't more primate or hominid fossils found in Australia. If you google Lake Mungo DNA you should be able to find many articles. The fossils found were the oldest anatomically modern human in Australia. The test is obstructed by the local custom. I wish they preserve the remain in a fridge if there is future study on t... [More]
Comment icon #18 Posted by DONTEATUS 12 years ago
This is great ! Homo-Sweet-n-Souracus !
Comment icon #19 Posted by Fruitbat 12 years ago
I often find the simplest explanation is most likely to be correct. I propose that the new Red Deer people actually ARE the Denisovans, who have only been identified as separate from DNA in finger bones. Skulls and other bones for Denisovans have not yet been found and confirmed, and these are the only known hominids from this period that are known without good fossil remains. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, an existing known, but poorly evidenced candidate is more probable than a new species. Mike
Comment icon #20 Posted by bigtroutak 12 years ago
Comeon guys its obvious that these are bigfoot fossils
Comment icon #21 Posted by Stardrive 12 years ago
big T, if all this talk of different bi pedal primate species being discovered and discussed freaks you out, it would do you some good to do some research on mankinds timeline. As people who work in this field make more discoveries, the timeline and evolutionary tree of mankind will remain under constant revision. Bigfeets are discussed in the Crypto section. It's been a while, but I'd be more than happy to debate that aspect with you there.
Comment icon #22 Posted by taiwan 12 years ago
I often find the simplest explanation is most likely to be correct. I propose that the new Red Deer people actually ARE the Denisovans, who have only been identified as separate from DNA in finger bones. Skulls and other bones for Denisovans have not yet been found and confirmed, and these are the only known hominids from this period that are known without good fossil remains. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, an existing known, but poorly evidenced candidate is more probable than a new species. Mike What you wrote is really not science. I remember my biology textbook from 80's and b... [More]
Comment icon #23 Posted by psyche101 12 years ago
I think we need to wait until the DNA is in before we start saying extinct. When we profiled Neaderthal DNA we discovered most people on Earth have 4$ of their genes in them. I would still call that a species extinction.
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