12 September, Thursday, 2024
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Mystery as ancient skull found without a chin ‘could be from new species of human’

Scientists have spent the past four years examining the fossilised remains dug up in Hualongdong, China, and the skull belonging to a child could turn out to be an incredible find

Archaeologists may have identified a new species of human after a chinless skull from hundreds of thousands of years ago was discovered in Asia.

Scientists have been examining the fossilised remains since they were dug up in Hualongdong, China, nearly four years ago. It included a jaw and leg bones and a skull that belongs to a child, but mystery still surrounds the find. The remains were likely to belong to a 12 or 13-year-old.

But its features did not ‘match the lineage which split to form Neanderthals, nor Denisovans’ and it has left the experts baffled. They said the the species ‘did not possess a true chin’ as they continue to search for answers. The study was published in the Journal of Human Evolution, hinting at an entirely new lineage, a hybrid between modern humans and those from the Denisovans region.

Homo sapiens only appeared about 120,000 years ago in China. Now it has been suggested that this may be the last common ancestor of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, which arose in southwest Asia before spreading to all sides of the world.

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