Red Deer Cave people
The Red Deer Cave people were a prehistoric population of
The fossils exhibit a mix of archaic and modern features and were tentatively thought to represent a late survival of an
Evidence shows large deer were cooked in the Red Deer Cave, giving the people their name.[3]
Discovery and dating
In 1979,
The dating of the bones has led to confusion and division among researchers. The anatomy of the bones, prior to successful DNA testing, suggested they were archaic humans, like early Homo erectus or Homo habilis who lived around 1.5 million years ago in Africa.[5] In 2013, Curnoe, Ji, and colleagues hypothesised that the cave people possibly represented a new species.[6]
In 2015, Curnoe, Ji, and colleagues suggested the Red Deer Cave people represent a hybrid population between
Anatomy
In spite of their relatively recent age, the fossils exhibit
Curnoe's previous works showed the bones and teeth were remarkably similar to that of archaic humans.
The Red Deer Cave femur is quite archaic, retaining some traits which have been lost in all anatomically modern humans. The subtrochanteric region (just below the
The reconstruction of the Maludong femur confirmed it was very small with the outer shell, or walls, are very thin. The areas of the wall that were of high strain, and the femur neck, are relatively long; the place of muscle attachment for the primary flexor muscle of the hip (the lesser trochanter) was robust and faced strongly backward.[5]
Classification
There was much initial speculation that the Red Deer Cave people represent an
One theory suggested that the Red Deer Cave people were early humans that settled into the region more than 100,000 years ago and became isolated.[11] The high mountains and deep valleys are ideal in isolating species geographically, so it is possible for a species to migrate to the area and become genetically isolated over time. The environment and climate of Southwest China are also unique owing to the tectonic uplift of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.
The successful sequencing of ancient genomic DNA from the Red Deer Cave skull, reported in July 2022, showed that the skull belonged to an anatomically modern human population that was genetically affiliated to modern East Asians, as well as, to a lesser extent, Native American populations.[2] Additionally, this woman belonged to maternal haplogroup M9 - a genetic lineage that arose approximately 47,000-50,000 years ago, probably in South Asia.[2] [12]
See also
- Interbreeding between archaic and modern humans
- Timeline of human evolution
- Timeline of the evolutionary history of life
References
- ^ a b c d Owen J (14 March 2012). "Cave Fossil Find: New Human Species or "Nothing Extraordinary"?". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on March 16, 2012.
- ^ S2CID 250502011.
- ^ a b Barras C (14 March 2012). "Chinese human fossils unlike any known species". New Scientist. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
- PMID 22431968.
All of the [Maludong] human remains were recovered from within a series of deposits dating from 14,310±340 cal. yr BP (OZM149; 292 cm depth) to 13,590±160 cal. yr BP (OZM145; 166 cm depth), a period of about 720 years. Moreover, the high fine-grained ferrimagnetic content of the deposits (Text S1), with their high magnetic susceptibility, suggests these were formed under warm, wet conditions, consistent with the Bølling-Allerød interstadial (~14.7-12.6 ka). Human remains recovered in situ during the 2008 excavation and a reasonably complete calotte (specimen MLDG 1704) derived from a subsection of these deposits dated between 13,990±165 cal. yr BP (OZM148; 235 cm) and 13,890±140 cal. yr BP (OZM146; 200 cm)
- ^ PMID 26678851.
- ^ S2CID 54625940.
- PMID 26202835.
- ^ IFLScience. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. 21 January 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
- PMID 26963221.)
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: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of March 2024 (link - ^ Curnoe, Darren (17 December 2015). "Bone suggests 'Red Deer Cave people' a mysterious species of human". The Conversation. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
- PMID 18385274.
External links
- Media related to Red Deer Cave people at Wikimedia Commons
- Defining ‘human’ – new fossils provide more questions than answers (article by Darren Curnoe in The Conversation, March 15, 2012)
- Enigma Man: A Stone Age Mystery (Aired by ABC TV on Tuesday 24 June 2014, 8:30pm)
- Human Timeline (Interactive) – Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History (August 2016).