Possible New Human Species Found

Scientists have discovered what may be a new species of human in China, calling them the "Red Deer Cave People."Discovered in 1989 by miners quarrying limestone near the city of Mengzi, the fossil remains haven't been studied until 2008. They lived in China at the end of the last great Ice Age from about 15,000 to 11,000 years ago, during a very cold period. They have a curious mixture of modern and archaic human traits but have yet to be classified as a new species. Among those archaic traits are the heavy brow ridges, thick skull bones, lack of a chin, large molar teeth, moderately sized brain and primitive features in the parietal lobes.Details of the scientists findings can be read in the journal PLoS ONE.

There are a couple of things I thought about when reading the articles and looking at the morphology:Are these traits due to hybridization? Or a surviving population of later Homo pushed out of North Africa by Homo sapiens?If they are due to hybridization, could we expect that certain cultural traits might be carried forward? With a probable low population pressure from surrounding (probably dominant) cultures, could we see artifacts that share traits with earlier Homo erectus populations?I would expect that these examples more closely resemble cladogenesis and the further branching off of hominin species (consider the diversity within Africa prior to the migration of Homo sapiens), if they are not due to hybridization.I expect that a lot of questions would be resolved if they are able to extract some DNA from the remains.

Occums razor.As you say, H. erectus has no business being in that area at that time. But, we do know that Pleistocene H. sapiens was quite morphologically diverse prior to their expansion into Eurasia.It would be exciting to see a surviving population of divergent H. erectus, but I suspect not, considering the lack of H. erectus fossils within the transitional time. Of course, absence of evidence does not necessarily constitute evidence of absence.Here's hoping they extract some DNA.