Possible New Human Species Found

Hi DBlevins, thanks We seem to be seeing a mosaic of traits here. We also need to consider H.erectus and possible interbreeding, when we know that they migrated into this area (Java man and Dmanisi).Just looking at the pictures, it seems to me that the Longlin 1 skull ...

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Background Later Pleistocene human evolution in East Asia remains poorly understood owing to a scarcity of well described, reliably classified and accurately dated fossils. Southwest China has been identified from genetic research as a hotspot of human diversity, containing ancient mtDNA and Y-DNA lineages, and has yielded a number of human remains thought to derive from Pleistocene deposits. We have prepared, reconstructed, described and dated a new partial skull from a consolidated sediment block collected in 1979 from the site of Longlin Cave (Guangxi Province). We also undertook new excavations at Maludong (Yunnan Province) to clarify the stratigraphy and dating of a large sample of mostly undescribed human remains from the site. Methodology/Principal Findings We undertook a detailed comparison of cranial, including a virtual endocast for the Maludong calotte, mandibular and dental remains from these two localities. Both samples probably derive from the same population, exhibiting an unusual mixture of modern human traits, characters probably plesiomorphic for later Homo, and some unusual features. We dated charcoal with AMS radiocarbon dating and speleothem with the Uranium-series technique and the results show both samples to be from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition: ∼14.3-11.5 ka. Conclusions/Significance Our analysis suggests two plausible explanations for the morphology sampled at Longlin Cave and Maludong. First, it may represent a late-surviving archaic population, perhaps paralleling the situation seen in North Africa as indicated by remains from Dar-es-Soltane and Temara, and maybe also in southern China at Zhirendong. Alternatively, East Asia may have been colonised during multiple waves during the Pleistocene, with the Longlin-Maludong morphology possibly reflecting deep population substructure in Africa prior to modern humans dispersing into Eurasia.

Figure 3. Longlin 1 partial skull (each bar = 1 cm).

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... looks a lot like G or H from the Talk Origins lineup picture:

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(G) Homo erectus, Dmanisi cranium D2700, 1.75 My
(H) Homo ergaster (early H. erectus), KNM-ER 3733, 1.75 My

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The other skull shown is not so easy to compare, however they have a graph showing it with a higher forehead than erectus. They also say:

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Vault thickness.

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Vault thickness measurements are presented for LL 1 and MLDG 1704 and compared in Table 5. At bregma, LL 1 has a thick vault (10 mm), being most similar to the H. erectus (ERECT) mean (92 mm; z0.49). While its value is within one standard deviation unit of the EUEHS sample mean (73 mm; z0.94), it is significantly different to the NEAND mean (71 mm; z2.89, p0.006).

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Certainly there has been time for some phyletic evolution if there is a continued branch of H.erectus in the neighborhood.It will be interesting to see how further information adds to the picture.Enjoy.Edited by RAZD, : finishEdited by RAZD, : addedEdited by RAZD, : added again