New Species of Humanoid Discovered

[Evildweeb Profile]

14 March 2012 Last updated at 11:19 ET

Human fossils hint at new species

Jonathan Amos By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

New Species of Humanoid Discovered

China



Scientists say the specimens display features that are quite distinct from fully modern humans




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.


How the Red Deer Cave people might have looked 11,500 years ago


"One of the reasons for that is that in the science of human evolution or palaeoanthropology, we presently don't have a generally agreed, biological definition for our own species (Homo sapiens), believe it or not. And so this is a highly contentious area," he told BBC News.
Much of the material has been in Chinese collections for some time but has only recently been subjected to detailed analysis.



The remains of some of the individuals come from Maludong (or Red Deer Cave), near the city of Mengzi in Yunnan Province. A further skeleton was discovered at Longlin, in neighbouring Guangxi Province. The skulls and teeth from the two locations are very similar to each other,
suggesting they are from the same population.


But their features are quite distinct from what you might call a fully modern human, says the team. Instead, the Red Deer Cave people have a mix of archaic and modern characteristics.

In general, the individuals had rounded brain cases with prominent brow ridges. Their skull bones were quite thick. Their faces were quite short and flat and tucked under the brain, and they had broad noses. Their jaws jutted forward but they lacked a modern-human-like chin. Computed
Tomography (X-ray) scans of their brain cavities indicate they had modern-looking frontal lobes but quite archaic-looking anterior, or parietal,
lobes. They also had large molar teeth. Dr Curnoe and colleagues put forward two possible scenarios in their PLoS One
paper for the origin of the Red Deer Cave population. One posits that they represent a very early migration of a primitive-looking
Homo sapiens that lived separately from other forms in Asia before dying out.


Project leaders Darren Curnoe and Ji Xueping discuss the Longlin skull

Another possibility contends that they were indeed a distinct Homo species that evolved in Asia and lived alongside our own kind until remarkably
recently. A third scenario being suggested by scientists not connected with the research is that the Red Deer Cave people could be hybrids.
"It's possible these were modern humans who inter-mixed or bred with archaic humans that were around at the time," explained Dr Isabelle De Groote, a palaeoanthropologist from London's Natural History Museum. "The other option is that they evolved these more primitive features
independently because of genetic drift or isolation, or in a response to an environmental pressure such as climate."

Dr Curnoe agreed all this was "certainly possible".



Scientists continue to excavate at Maludong


Attempts are being made to extract DNA from the remains. This could yield information about interbreeding, just as genetic studies have on the closely related human species - the Neanderthals and an enigmatic group of people from Siberia known as the Denisovans.
Whatever their true place in the Homo family tree, the Red Deer People are an important find simply because of the dearth of well dated, well
described specimens from this part of the world. And their unearthing all adds to the fascinating and increasingly complex
story of human migration and development.


"The Red Deer People were living at what was a really interesting time in China, during what we call the epipalaeolithic or the end of the Stone Age," says Dr Curnoe. "Not far from Longlin, there are quite well known archaeological sites where some of the very earliest evidence for the epipalaeolithic in East Asia has been found.

"These were occupied by very modern looking people who are already starting to make ceramics - pottery - to store food. And they're already harvesting from the landscape wild rice. There was an economic transition going on from full-blown foraging and gathering towards agriculture."
Quite how the Red Deer People fit into this picture is unclear. The research team is promising to report further investigations into some of the stone tools and cultural artefacts discovered at the dig sites.

The co-leader on the project is Professor Ji Xueping of the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17370170

[Noentry Profile]

good post evildweeb.
how many more species of ancient man will they find?

"One of the reasons for that is that in the science of human evolution or palaeoanthropology, we presently don't have a generally agreed, biological definition for our own species (Homo sapiens), believe it or not. And so this is a highly contentious area," he told BBC News.

very interesting

[Evildweeb Profile]

Good one 2020.

I hope they find the remains of a family miles down in some mine dating back 100 million years all sitting in front of a television watching reruns on the DINO Channel.

That day will come.



cheers

[Tgwusauk Profile]

Good post, but my contention with scientists, is that they are more interested in getting their grants than posting the truth, they all know we never came from apes and yet continue to peddle said rubbish to preserve their grants.

[Evildweeb Profile]

Good post, but my contention with scientists, is that they are more interested in getting their grants than posting the truth, they all know we never came from apes and yet continue to peddle said rubbish to preserve their grants.

Indeed TG. One could almost use the old maxim:

"Scientists of a feather Grant together."

LOL

Cheers

[Evildweeb Profile]

{........Note from Lloyd Pye regarding this story.....}


I have never received more comments about a news story........than the one about the "Red Deer Cave" skulls and other bones that were recently announced in China.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17370170

As the article makes clear, these are not human bones. In every way they are the skulls of primates, with heavy brow ridges, wide cheekbones, flat faces, wide noses, prognathous jaws, and no chin. Perfect hominoid faces (like we would expect to find with Bigfoot, Almas, Yeti, or Agogwes) on bipedal bodies, but living in the range of only 12,000 to 13,000 years ago.

This date creates an enormous problem for mainstream scientists. They MUST find a way to classify these beings as some kind of aberrant humans, or they would have to face the obvious fact that these are the bones of hominoids (bipedal, hair-covered primates), which would immediately shove humans off the flow-chart of life on Earth. That would drive a spear through the heart of human evolution, and cause a nuclear meltdown in mainstream ranks!!!

This is the same problem they faced with the Hobbits of Indonesia. Remember those? The little dwarf-sized bipeds that also looked entirely non-human? Yet they, too, lived well within the cut-off point for so-called "prehumans," the last of the Neanderthals at around 28,000 years ago. And keep in mind that the Neanderthals have skulls much more like both the Red Deer Cave people and the Hobbits. Neanderthals were nothing like humans as we are today.

This problem is what created the infamous "Missing Link," a mystery hominid that is often touted as being found, but never really is. There is NO possible "transition" species between Neanderthals and humans because the change in our cranial structure is so profound. Every single aspect is different. There are NO areas of direct, perfect corollary. Just as that is true with the Starchild Skull. There is not a single corollary with a human skull....NOT ONE!

So the Red Deer Cave people are another form of Hobbit, and they will be treated the same. A way will be found to shoehorn them into the "human" category, where they will fit as well as chimps or gorillas might, and as the Hobbits have been forced to do. This is so science doesn't have to face up to the possibility that humans are recent arrivals on Earth, not part of the native species, and that we might actually have been genetically engineered!!!

Speaking of the Starchild Skull....

We're doing great with new interest on several fronts since the annoucement of the fragment recovered from its FOXP2 gene. If you have not read the essay about this yet, you really should. It's 4,000 words and is available at:

http://www.starchildproject.com/dna2012.htm. Takes 20 minutes to read.

But the new news is found in this article:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/ ... rmed-space

It talks about the discovery that in all astronauts who spend extended time in space, they come back to Earth with noticeable distortion in the rear of their eye sockets, which changes the quality of their vision! This is a fascinating result of long-term exposure of humans in space, but it also applies to the Starchild Skull. One of its most noticeable features is the extreme shallowness of its eye sockets, making them absolutely nothing like human eye sockets, yet they are stunningly symmetrical and therefore meant to be built as they are.


Lloyd Pye
03-16-2012