Is ancient bone discovery proof of ‘missing’ link to Neanderthals?
BONES from a prehistoric human found in Israel could change our thinking on how mankind evolved.
The hominin – human ancestor – which lived around 140,000 years ago, is unlike us as it had no chin, very large teeth and a different skull.
It is believed to be a member of the ‘missing population’ predicted to exist by geneticists. It had a jaw and teeth similar to Neanderthals and probably mated with Homo sapiens – modern man.
Researchers made the discovery from examining bones unearthed at Nesher Ramla, an open-air prehistoric site in central Israel.
Scientists say their findings, published in two papers in the journal Science, shed light on one of human evolution’s greatest mysteries – how European Neanderthals had genes from modern humans long before they came into contact with each other. The answer is likely to be that Homo sapiens mated with this new ancient human, which was similar to the Neanderthals.
Dr Rachel Sarig from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, co-author of one of the studies on the find, said: ‘At a later stage small groups of the Nesher Ramla Homo type migrated to
Europe – where they evolved into the “classic” Neanderthals that we are familiar with.
‘Israel served as a melting pot where different human populations mixed with one another, to later spread throughout the Old World. The discovery from the Nesher Ramla site writes a new and fascinating chapter in the story of humankind.’ From older fossil finds, the researchers suspect that the Nesher Ramla people were already living in Israel around 400,000 years ago, before the arrival of Homo sapiens from Africa some 200,000 years later.
Their findings also challenge the prevailing hypothesis that Neanderthals originated in Europe.