Palaeontology

Unidentified hominin skull study reignites 300,000-year-old mystery

By T.K. Randall
June 5, 2025 ·  1 comment

A reproduction of the Maba skull. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Ryan Somma The fossil - known as the Maba 1 skull - was first unearthed all the way back in 1958 by bat guano farmers who had been digging along a trench near Maba Village in Shaoguan City, China.

Based on the few fragments that they were able to find, researchers determined that the skull was most likely that of a Neanderthal, but now - decades on from its original discovery - a renewed analysis of the fossil fragments has cast doubt on this conclusion.

While it is generally agreed that the skull dates back 300,000 years to the late Middle Pleistocene, nobody can quite agree on what species of human ancestor it actually belongs to.

Micro-CT scans have generally ruled out that it is a Neanderthal skull and its features don't seem to be consistent with other known species (such as Homo erectus) either.This begs the question - could this be from an entirely unknown species of human ancestor ?

There's another mystery, too - the skull shows signs of trauma and of healing, suggesting that this individual sustained injuries and then went on to survive them for some time afterward.

Exactly what caused these injuries, however, remains unclear.

"The internal structures of Maba 1 show a combination of morphological features found in various species," researchers concluded.

"These findings further evidence the high morphological variability among Asian hominins in the late Middle Pleistocene. Maba 1 currently cannot be definitely classified in any known hominin taxon."

Source: Popular Mechanics | Comments (1)

Tags: Skull, Human