A New Human On The Block.

[BIAD]

Here we go again, another 'type' of human discovered.

New type of ancient human discovered in Israel

'Researchers working in Israel have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human that lived alongside our
species more than 100,000 years ago. They believe that the remains uncovered near the city of Ramla represent
one of the "last survivors" of a very ancient human group.

The finds consist of a partial skull and jaw from an individual who lived between 140,000 and 120,000 years ago.
Details have been published in the journal Science.


(Left) The skull fragment and jawbone found near Ramla in Israel. (Centre) One of the stone tools used by the
Nesher Ramla humans. It was produced with the same techniques used by modern humans at the time.
(Right) The human finds were uncovered during the excavation of a sinkhole. Thousands of stone tools and
animal remains were also found.

The team members think the individual descended from an earlier species that may have spread out of the region
hundreds of thousands of years ago and given rise to Neanderthals in Europe and their equivalents in Asia.
The scientists have named the newly discovered lineage the "Nesher Ramla Homo type".

Dr Hila May of Tel Aviv University said the discovery reshapes the story of human evolution, particularly those of the
Neanderthals. The general picture of Neanderthal evolution had in the past been linked closely with Europe.
"It all started in Israel. We suggest that a local group was the source population," she told BBC News.
"During interglacial periods, waves of humans, the Nesher Ramla people, migrated from the Middle East to Europe."

The team thinks that early members of the Nesher Ramla Homo group were already present in the Near East some
400,000 years ago. The researcher have noticed resemblances between the new finds and ancient "pre-Neanderthal"
groups in Europe.

"This is the first time we could connect the dots between different specimens found in the Levant" said Dr Rachel Sarig,
also from Tel Aviv University. "There are several human fossils from the caves of Qesem, Zuttiyeh and Tabun that date
back to that time that we could not attribute to any specific known group of humans.
But comparing their shapes to those of the newly uncovered specimen from Nesher Ramla, justify their inclusion within
the [new human] group."

Dr May suggests that these humans were the ancestors of Neanderthals.
"The European Neanderthal actually began here in the Levant and migrated to Europe, while interbreeding with other
groups of humans."

Others travelled east to India and China, said Prof Israel Hershkovitz, suggesting a connection between East Asian
archaic humans and Neanderthals in Europe. "Some fossils found in East Asia manifest Neanderthal-like features
as the Nesher Ramla do," he said.

The researchers base their claims on similarities in features between the Israeli fossils and those found in Europe and
Asia, though their assertion is controversial. Prof Chris Stringer, from the Natural History Museum in London, has recently
been assessing Chinese human remains.

"Nesher Ramla is important in confirming yet further that different species co-existed alongside each other in the region
at the time and now we have the same story in western Asia," he said. "However, I think it's a jump too far at the moment
to link some of the older Israeli fossils to Neanderthals.
I'm also puzzled at suggestions of any special link between the Nesher Ramla material and fossils in China."

The Nesher Ramla remains themselves were found in what used to be a a sinkhole, located in an area frequented by
prehistoric humans. This may have been an area where they hunted for wild cattle, horses and deer, as indicated by
thousands of stone tools and bones of hunted animals.

According to an analysis by Dr Yossi Zaidner at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, these tools were constructed in the
same manner that modern humans of the time also made their implements. "It was a surprise that archaic humans were
using tools normally associated with Homo sapiens. This suggests that there were interactions between the two groups,"
Dr Zaidner said.

"We think that it is only possible to learn how to make the tools through visual or oral learning. Our findings suggest that
human evolution is far from simple and involved many dispersals, contacts and interactions between different species
of human."...'

BBC:

[727Sky]

The more they look the more they find... yet as always there is more to find IMO

[hounddoghowlie]

Sapiens Rule,

kicked all the homo genus asses.

[hounddoghowlie]

Sapiens Rule,

kicked all the homo genus asses.

[BIAD]

The more they look the more they find... yet as always there is more to find IMO

Sky is correct and not to be outdone, China show-off their new trophy.

Scientists hail stunning 'Dragon Man' discovery

'Chinese researchers have unveiled an ancient skull that could belong to a completely new species of human.
The team has claimed it is our closest evolutionary relative among known species of ancient human, such as
Neanderthals and Homo erectus.

Nicknamed "Dragon Man", the specimen represents a human group that lived in East Asia at least 146,000 years ago.
It was found at Harbin, north-east China, in 1933, but only came to the attention of scientists more recently.
An analysis of the skull has been published in the journal The Innovation.

One of the UK's leading experts in human evolution, Prof Chris Stringer from London's Natural History Museum, was a
member of the research team. "In terms of fossils in the last million years, this is one of the most important yet discovered,"
he told BBC News.

"What you have here is a separate branch of humanity that is not on its way to becoming Homo sapiens (our species),
but represents a long-separate lineage which evolved in the region for several hundred thousand years and eventually
went extinct."


No... these are not ex-employees of the Wuhan Lab.

The researchers say the discovery has the potential to rewrite the story of human evolution. Their analysis suggests that it
is more closely related to Homo sapiens than it is to Neanderthals. They have assigned the specimen to a new species:
Homo longi, from the Chinese word "long", meaning dragon.

"We found our long-lost sister lineage," said Xijun Ni, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hebei GEO
University in Shijiazhuang. He told BBC News: "I said 'oh my gosh!' I could not believe that it was so well preserved, you
can see all the details. It is a really amazing find!"

The skull is huge compared with the average skulls belonging to other human species, including our own. Its brain was
comparable in size to those from our species. Dragon Man had large, almost square eye sockets, thick brow ridges,
a wide mouth, and oversized teeth. Prof Qiang Ji, from Hebei GEO University, says it is one of the most complete
early human skull fossils ever discovered.

"It has a mosaic combination of primitive and (more modern features), setting itself apart from all the other species of
human," the researcher explained. The scientists believe that Dragon Man was powerfully-built and rugged. But little is
known about how he lived, because his skull was removed from the site in which it was found.
That means that there is currently no archaeological context, such as stone tools, or other elements of culture.

The skull was reportedly discovered in 1933 by a construction worker helping build a bridge on the Songhua river running
through Harbin, in Heilongjiang province, which translated means Black Dragon River, hence the new human's name..
The city was under Japanese occupation at the time. Suspecting its cultural value, the Chinese worker smuggled it home,
to keep it out of the hands of occupiers

 He hid it at the bottom of his family's well, where it remained for around 80 years. The man told his family about the skull
before he died, which is how it eventually got into the hands of scientists. Dragon Man joins a number of early human remains
uncovered in China that have proven difficult to categorise.
These include remains from Dali, Jinniushan, Hualongdong and the Xiahe jawbone from the Tibetan Plateau.

There has been a fierce debate about whether these remains represent primitive examples of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals,
a human group called the Denisovans, or something else entirely. The Denisovans were first identified from DNA retrieved
from a 50,000-30,000-year-old finger bone discovered in Denisova Cave, Russia.

Because the remains associated with this sister lineage to the Neanderthals were so fragmentary, the group has been described
as a "genome in search of a fossil record". Prof Marta Mirazon Lahr, from the University of Cambridge, believes that Dragon Man
was, in fact, a Denisovan.

"The Denisovans are this fascinating mystery population from the past. There is a suggestion (from DNA evidence) that the jawbone
found in the Tibetan Plateau might be a Denisovan," she said. "And now because the jawbone from Tibet and Dragon Man look like
each other - now we might actually have the first face of the Denisovan."

And a group that recently published details of human remains from Israel belonging to a possible precursor species to the Neanderthals,
believe Dragon Man might be descended from a group of humans that first emerged in the Levant region.

But the Chinese researchers maintain that the hard-to-classify fossils from East Asia represent the gradual evolution of a new species.
Prof Ni has a gracious response to those that disagree with this assessment.
"The results will spark a lot of debate and I am quite sure that a lot of people will disagree with us," he said.
"But that is science and it is because we disagree that science progresses."...'

Archived BBC Article:

What...? and no mask?!

[WonderCow]

That hairy fella looks oddly familiar....

[BIAD]

That hairy fella looks oddly familiar....

And with occidental eyes too. I'm surprised they arranged the rendering like that.

[Ninurta]

Scientists hail stunning 'Dragon Man' discovery


Nicknamed "Dragon Man", the specimen represents a human group that lived in East Asia at least 146,000 years ago.
It was found at Harbin, north-east China, in 1933, but only came to the attention of scientists more recently.
An analysis of the skull has been published in the journal The Innovation.

Unless I am misremembering, which may be the case. Harbin is @"Guohua"'s home town.

"What you have here is a separate branch of humanity that is not on its way to becoming Homo sapiens (our species),
but represents a long-separate lineage which evolved in the region for several hundred thousand years and eventually
went extinct."


No... these are not ex-employees of the Wuhan Lab.

That gent looks suspiciously Neanderthal. Big, wide-set eyes... check. Heavy brow ridges... check. Broad nasal aperture... check. But it can't be Neanderthal, because scientists tell us Neanderthals did not live as far east as Harbin, China. Luckily, we have another contender in the Denisovans. They were closely related to Neanderthals, and lived in the right area... and it has been mentioned before that a more complete Denisovan cranium may be sitting unrecognized, collecting dust in a museum somewhere - this could be it!

I can't see diagnostically Neanderthal features that may be on these craniums, like the occipital protrusion, the mandibular ramus, or various forae that were on Neanderthals but not modern humans to be able to tell just how close to Neanderthals the skulls may be.


.

[WonderCow]

I can't see diagnostically Neanderthal features that may be on these craniums, like the occipital protrusion, the mandibular ramus, or various forae that were on Neanderthals but not modern humans to be able to tell just how close to Neanderthals the skulls may be.

Skull side view in this article

[WonderCow]

That hairy fella looks oddly familiar....

And with occidental eyes too. I'm surprised they arranged the rendering like that.

The epicanthal eye fold is a relatively recent mutation.

Scientists have found a gene that seems to account for most of the world's Asian-looking eyes. The gene is called EDAR, variant 370A. It arose about 30,000 years ago.
This gene variant does not appear to be linked to any populations in Africa such as the Khoisan of Southern Africa where the epicanthic eye fold also occurs. There is no connection with Down Syndrome or other genetic disorders.
In some people this gene variant produces only slightly Asian-looking eyes, while in others the intensity of the effect is much greater. This suggests that other genes are at work as well.
Besides epicanthic eye-folds, this gene variant also produces thicker hair shafts and straighter hair (hair shafts more circular in cross section), reduced beard and eyebrow thickness, reduced chin protrusion, changes in the slope of the forehead, upper lip thickness, ears (ear protrusion, lobe attachment, lobe size, helix rolling, folding of antihelix), increased incisor shoveling, smaller breasts, and increased eccrine (sweat) gland density, especially in the feet.

[BIAD]

I can't see diagnostically Neanderthal features that may be on these craniums, like the occipital protrusion, the mandibular ramus, or various forae that were on Neanderthals but not modern humans to be able to tell just how close to Neanderthals the skulls may be.

Skull side view in this article

It'll be interesting to hear Ninurta's opinion on the images that you kindly provided, the rendering showing the
facial features of this early-human confuses the standard assumption by myself regarding the modern-day eastern
-Asian physical appearance

He looks like the unearthed European versions of early man and in today's politicised-world, I'm surprised that this poor
soul wasn't modified to benefit a political agenda!



(From WonderCow's link:)

'...An article describing the specimen suggests it most likely belonged to a man in his 50s, who would have had an
“extremely wide face” with deep-set eyes, as well as larger eye sockets, teeth and brain.

The article was accompanied by a 3D reconstruction of the creature’s face, which arguably has more of a Neanderthal
‘look’ than that of more refined humans.

However, researcher Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, who co-wrote another of the papers on the
skull’s discovery, called it “the most important fossil I've seen in 50 years,” thrilled at “how important East Asia and China
is in telling the human story.”

The researchers hope to extract proteins and DNA from the body, which includes a tooth potentially serviceable for such
purposes. They also hope to study the inside of the skull, particularly examining the sinuses, ears, and brain shape with
the help of CT scans...'

Edit: @WonderCow. I've just read your 'eye mutation' post and I thank you for the explanation.

[Ninurta]

It'll be interesting to hear Ninurta's opinion on the images that you kindly provided, the rendering showing the
facial features of this early-human confuses the standard assumption by myself regarding the modern-day eastern
-Asian physical appearance

He looks like the unearthed European versions of early man and in today's politicised-world, I'm surprised that this poor
soul wasn't modified to benefit a political agenda!



(From WonderCow's link:)

The skull looks very similar to me to the one found in Petralona, Greece, and somewhat similar to those fro Sima de Los Huesos in Spain. I think those are both around 400 to 600 thousand years old, and are of a species called "homo antecessor" in some circles.

The eyes look neanderthal-ish, and speculation among some is that antecessor may have been the ancestors of both Neanderthals and Denisovans. Others say that ancestor was heidelbergensis instead, and yet others make no distinctions between the two.

The skull in the image is long and low, like neanderthal, antecessor, and heidelbergensis, but doesn't appear to have the occipital "bun" diagnostic of neanderthals.

Other gross features of neanderthals, discernible to the eye on a live specimen, are the relative body proportions that are not covered in this specimen for the most part. Neanderthals had larger eyes than modern humans, and the spacing of them was wider than in moderns, and that shows in this specimen as well. It may have been an intermediate species, or another branch altogether. It still might be a Denisovan, as no denisovans have been identified to tell other than a finger fragment and a couple of teeth from the Altai Mountains and a jaw from Tibet. DNA evidence extracted form them indicate they were more closely related to neanderthals than to modern folks, and that those two split off from each other a couple hundred thousand years after their ancestors split off from the lineage that led to modern humans.

Neanderthals were shorter than modern humans and had a differently shaped ribcage that gave an appearance of them having no waist. their skulls were larger than modern people but mounted on a shorter body, giving them a look of having big heads. Their distal limbs - the forearms and shins - were around 20% shorter in relation to their upper arms and thighs, and overall bodily proportion than is common among modern humans. The net effect of all these differences was to make them look more like dwarves to a modern eye. They looked sort of "muscle bound".

About a year or a year and a half ago, I was dissatisfied with all the reconstructions you see in museums, as the recent bent is to try to make neanderthals look more "human" in a modern sense, so liberties have been taken in making most of them. So, I used software ("Virtual Plastic Surgery" and some other image manipulation software) to edit some photos of modern people to conform to the proportions I had worked out from data in the literature to get a better idea of what they "really" looked like. It was eye-opening. overall, they seemed a cross between modern human dwarves and regular moderns, with primitive heads and facial features, They eyes in particular looked pretty weird, like some of those Japanese cartoons with the huge eyes.

If I can find them, I'll try and post an image I edited of me, my facial features warped to conform to neanderthal proportions, I've got my own permission to post those. The other, full body images are of other folks, and they're nekkid to get the body proportions right, so I won't be posting those here. Besides, I can't get permissions to post those from the models, anyhow.

.

[Ninurta]

Here is the image of me reconstructed as a Neanderthal:



As I was looking for it, and running through some of the other reconstructions, I realized that I forgot to mention that neanderthals were also broader across the body than modern humans. That broader body, combined with the shorter stature, served to make them look even more squat, more dwarf-like - in the classic, Nordic-Germanic fantasy sense of "dwarves". it makes me wonder if perhaps a neanderthal hold-out population may have given rise to the original legends of dwarves living in caves and underground tunnels, forging swords and whatnot.

.

[WonderCow]

Here is the image of me reconstructed as a Neanderthal:



As I was looking for it, and running through some of the other reconstructions, I realized that I forgot to mention that neanderthals were also broader across the body than modern humans. That broader body, combined with the shorter stature, served to make them look even more squat, more dwarf-like - in the classic, Nordic-Germanic fantasy sense of "dwarves". it makes me wonder if perhaps a neanderthal hold-out population may have given rise to the original legends of dwarves living in caves and underground tunnels, forging swords and whatnot.

Wow! That's awesome!
I agree with you on the Neanderthal/Dwarves theory, I've often thought the same thing, I wonder who the elves were though! 
Now I know who that hairy fella reminds me of - Gimli from LOTR.

[BIAD]

The skull looks very similar to me to the one found in Petralona, Greece...

The Petralona skull & The 'Dragon Man' skull.

[Ninurta]

The skull looks very similar to me to the one found in Petralona, Greece...

The Petralona skull & The 'Dragon Man' skull.

Good comparison! When you set the side by side like that, I can see the similarities and the differences. The supraorbital ridges are nearly the same, but the eye orbits and nasal aperture have different shapes, the cranial vault is lower and more keeled in the sagittal crest, and the cheek bones are higher in "Dragon Man". He also appears to have more prognathism in the maxillary area. Altogether, Petralona looks to me like it may have descended fro Dragon Man, i.e. that Dragon Man is an older ancestor of Petralona.

But what do I know? I ain't any kind of anthropologist!

.

[Ninurta]

More information

This article refers to the skull as that of a "giant". I believe that may be stretching things a bit. It's just under 6 inches wide (15 mm) and just over 9 inches long (23 mm). While larger than normal for a modern human, I don't thing that quote ventures into "giant" territory. He was what we call a "big ol' boy" around here, but hardly a giant.

The cranial capacity is comparable to a modern human female, at 1420 cc.

It was actually found in the 1930's, during the Japanese occupation of Harbin, and hidden in a well to keep it from falling into the hands of the Japanese. Tje fella that hid it in the well told his grandson about it on his deathbed, and the grandson retrieved the skull from the well.

This article also speculaltes that it may be a Denisovan, but in another place it equates it ti the Dali cranium, so who knows? Until they DNA test it, it's anyone's guess. Most modern DNA testing tests fa bone in the inner ear of the sjull, because DNA is preserved best there, and in the teeth, So I'm waiting to see if anyone gets the idea to DNA test it,

.