Through an analysis of fossil remains, an international team of archaeologists discovered a new human species in Israel which they named ‘ Homo Nesher Ramla ‘.
For years it was held that Neanderthals originated in Europe. Although recent studies have suggested that this species could have carried genes from a non-European group, still unknown to science.
Now, a new type of early human has been discovered after studying pieces of fossilized bone unearthed at a site used by a cement plant in central Israel.
Fragments of a skull and a lower jaw with teeth were more than 100 thousand years old. This fact could force us to rethink parts of the human family tree, argued the researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
unknown spice
The fossils in question, —a cranial vault and a mandible—, with Neanderthal characteristics, date from between 140,000 and 120,000 years old and show the existence of a group of hominids not recognized until now. This species would be representative of the last surviving populations of ‘Homo’ from the Middle Pleistocene in Europe, Southwest Asia and Africa.
Homo Nesher Ramla, named after the place southeast of Tel Aviv where it was found, may have lived alongside our species, Homo sapiens, for more than 100,000 years. It may even have interbred, according to the findings.
The first humans, who had very large teeth and no chin. They may also have been ancestors of Neanderthals, the study added, challenging current thinking that our evolutionary cousins originated in Europe.
The analysis of data on their stone tools, fauna, environment and possible associated behavior with respect to fossils found at the Israeli site. He showed that the ‘Homo Nesher Ramla’ were efficient hunters and used wood to start fires, which they knew how to maintain and also use to cook or roast meats.
According to Juan Luis Arsuaga, one of the authors of the study and professor of Paleontology at the Complutense University of Madrid. He said “the Nesher Ramla fossils show the continuous alternation over the last 200,000 years of Neanderthal and modern human (‘Homo sapiens’) fossils in the Levant Mediterranean sites.”
It is a corridor between Africa and Eurasia, which was probably the place where genetic exchanges took place between Middle Pleistocene ‘Homo’ and ‘Homo sapiens’. Judging by the archaeological data.
Apparently in the remote past there was a great variety of human species, which were segmented by different parts of the planet. With which until now history and archeology did not count and shows us that there is still much to discover.
