Pre-history rewritten as new human discovered
Submitted by coldrum on Friday, 23 April 2010 Page Views: 1760
DiscoveriesScientists in Germany have discovered a new human species that lived in Siberia around 30,000 to 50,000 years ago.The evidence changes the picture of pre-human habitation on Earth. The species lived at the same time as modern humans and Neanderthals and shared a common ancestor with them.
Scientists found the fossilised remnants of a tiny finger bone that probably belonged to a small child.
Dr Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany is the author of a paper on the finding which has been published in Nature. He says the fossil was like nothing he had seen before. "I did several analyses to make sure that this DNA is authentic, that this DNA is really old and that this DNA is what had seemed to be a new hominine lineage," he says.
"A new discovery, different from human DNA and different from Neanderthal DNA, for example."
The discovery crucially suggests the species were living at the same time and in the same place as modern humans and Neanderthals.
Paavo says the new species shared a common ancestor with Neanderthals and modern humans. The common ancestor left Africa about 1 million years ago. "Maybe it is oversimplification to think about particular migrations out of Africa," he says.
"There might have been more or less continuous flow, and the picture that's going to emerge in the next years might be a much more complex one."
It was only a few years ago that the 'Hobbit of Flores' was discovered and proclaimed a new species.
Austin says with the discovery of this new human in Siberia, scientists are adjusting to the possibility that four species were living at the same time when previously it was thought there were only two.
For more, see www.abc.net..
Note: "It's not a modern human. It's not a Neanderthal. It's not a chimpanzee. It's something sort of halfway in between, at a time period when no-one thought that these sort of ancestral human forms were still alive."
We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.