Researchers have announced the species name of a newly discovered human ancestor, Homo bodoensis.
This species lived in Africa about 500,000 years ago, in the Middle Pleistocene, and is a direct ancestor of modern humans, scientists say. The name bodoensis comes from a skull found at Bodo D’ar in the Awash River Valley in Ethiopia.
Scientists say the timing is important because it was around this time that anatomically contemporary humans, Homo sapiens, appeared in Africa and Neanderthals, known as Homo neanderthalensis, in Europe.
However, some paleoanthropologists describe this period as “environmental confusion” because human evolution is currently poorly understood.
Dr Mirjana Roksandic, University of Winnipeg in Canada and lead author of the study, said: “Talking about human evolution during this period has become impossible due to the lack of precise terminology that recognizes human geographic variation.
According to the new classification, Homo bodoensis would describe mostly humans from Middle Pleistocene Africa and some from southeastern Europe, while much of the latter continent would be reclassified as Neanderthals.
Christopher Bae, from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and one of the study’s co-authors, said the introduction of Homo bodoensis aims to “cut the Gordian knot and allow us to communicate clearly about this important period.” in human evolution”.
Roksandic concludes: “The naming of new species is a huge problem, as the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature only allows name changes under very strict rules.
“We believe this one will last a long time, the new taxon name will only live if other researchers use it.”
The results were published in Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews.
In August, the Guardian reported that archaeologists found ancient DNA in the remains of a woman who died 7,200 years ago in Indonesia, a discovery that calls into question what was previously known about the first human migrations.
The body, belonging to a teenager nicknamed Bessé, was found in the Leang Panninge cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The first excavation was carried out in 2015.
Invention, published in the journal Nature, believed to be the first time ancient human DNA was found in Wallacea, a vast chain of islands and atolls in the ocean between mainland Asia and Australia.
DNA was extracted from the petrous portion of Bessé’s temporal bone, which houses the inner ear. Researchers say intact DNA is a rare find.
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