Mystery Human Fossils Put Spotlight On China

[Tank]

Mystery Human Fossils Put Spotlight On China[/url

An artist's reconstruction of fossils from two caves in southwest China have revealed a previously unknown Stone Age people and give a rare glimpse of a recent stage of human evolution with startling implications for the early peopling of Asia. The fossils are of a people with a highly unusual mix of archaic and modern anatomical features and are the youngest of their kind ever found in mainland East Asia. Dated to just 14,500 to 11,500 years old, these people would have shared the landscape with modern-looking people at a time when China's earliest farming cultures were beginning, says an international team of scientists led by associate professor Darren Curnoe, of the University of New South Wales, and professor Ji Xueping of the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology. (Credit: Art copyright by Peter Schouten)

Details of the discovery are published in the journal PLoS ONE. The team has been cautious about classifying the fossils because of their unusual mosaic of features.

"These new fossils might be of a previously unknown species, one that survived until the very end of the Ice Age around 11,000 years ago," says Professor Curnoe.

"Alternatively, they might represent a very early and previously unknown migration of modern humans out of Africa, a population who may not have contributed genetically to living people."

This throws the cat amongst the pigeons!

[The Magic Pudding]

This throws the cat amongst the pigeons!

Well I don't know about that but he probably resembles one of BooksCatsEtc's uncles.

[OldGit]

If he were wearing modern clothes, you'd pass him by in the street without looking twice.

[Tank]

I wonder how and why he  trimmed his beard?

[Tank]

Human fossils hint at new species

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.

But scientists are calling them simply the Red Deer Cave people, after one of the sites where they were unearthed.

The team has told the PLoS One journal that far more detailed analysis of the fossils is required before they can be ascribed to a new human lineage.

"We're trying to be very careful at this stage about definitely classifying them," said study co-leader Darren Curnoe from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

The skull cheek bones are very different from the hominids that appear to be our ancestors.

[Too Few Lions]

fascinating find, I also wonder how they know what skin colour they would have had from a fossil. It sounds like they may find a few new hominid species in Asia / China in the future.