A brand new human species simply dropped.
A study revealed within the anthropology journal Evolutionary Anthropology Thursday proposes naming a brand new species that lived over 500,000 years in the past.
The research started when three researchers got down to decide what to do with Homo heidelbergensis and Homo rhodesiensis, two human species that lived from about 774,000 to 129,000 years in the past. The traits of every species weren’t nicely outlined, inflicting confusion and inconsistencies when scientists went to categorize human fossils.
“We did not uncover something. We simply made a brand new species so as to have the ability to speak about what the hominis did in the previous,” Mirjana Roksandic, a professor of anthropology on the College of Winnipeg and an writer of the research, advised USA TODAY.
World’s oldest artwork:Ice age kids squished hands in mud. Are fossilized prints some of world’s oldest art?
“Most harmful fowl on the earth”:Humans were raising the flightless cassowary 18,000 years ago
The brand new species, Homo bodoensis, mainly recategorizes a few of these fossils into a greater outlined species from Africa and the Jap Mediterranean area.
However the brand new species is a suggestion, so there are no guarantees the remainder of the scientific neighborhood will undertake H. bodoensis.
“I hope that simply because it fills the void seeking terminology for me, it’ll additionally come to be accepted by others to fill that void,” Roksandic mentioned.
The research additionally suggests H. bodoensis was a direct ancestor Homo sapiens, fashionable people.
