A small collection of 21 teeth can have a major impact on the evolution of Asian humans. Dentals from the mysterious human ancestors who lived in China at least 300,000 years ago show unusual combinations of traits that could suggest early humans mating with Homoerectus, new research reveals.
“It’s a mosaic of properties that you’ve never seen before. It’s as if the evolutionary clock is clicking at different speeds across different parts of the body.”
In a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, researchers studied a handful of teeth from the Hualongdong archaeological site in southern China and found that ancient and modern characteristics are mixed.
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The teeth belonged to the people of Hualongdong, a mysterious group discovered in 2006. They lived in the mid-Pleistocene period about 300,000 years ago. Researchers have discovered at least 16 individuals so far.
Early analysis of skeletons suggests that they could be a type of East Asian H. erectus, reaching China 1.7 million years ago. However, more recent analysis showed that bones and teeth in Hualongdong people have a mix of characteristics commonly found in Homo Sapiens and H. erectus. Specifically, the people of Hualongdong had human-like facial features, but H. There was a proportion of limbs seen more frequently in erectus.
Similarly, a new study revealed a mix of teeth characteristics in people in Hualongdong. Most of the teeth featured looked modern, including small sizes of wisdom teeth. However, the roots of the molars are very thick and robust, and H. It was more similar than found in erectus.
Related: The skull of an ancient “dragonman” from China is not what we thought
Researchers don’t know why Hualongdong’s teeth look like this, as the teeth of ancient humans still stitch together the evolutionary history of Chinese humans, but they have proposed some ideas in their research.
One possible explanation is that the population of Hualongdong was closely related to H. Sapiens, but different from Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Another possibility is that the bones and teeth of people in Hualongdong “can be the result of genetic drift or gene flow,” the researchers wrote in the study. Essentially, the Haulongdong population is H. It is possible that erectus and humans gave birth to babies or that they were born due to another change in genetic makeup.
The mid-Pleistocene human ancestry has been discovered and analyzed at a rapid pace, paving the way for a better understanding of Asian human origins.
In 2019, a small Homo Luzonensis was discovered in the Philippines. In 2021, a new species called H. longi was identified in northern China (although the specimen was later revealed to be Denisovan). And in 2024, the discovery of Homo Jurensis from China was announced. All of these newly identified ancient species were dated about 300,000-150,000 years ago, and paleontologists are just beginning to understand how they are all related.
“Hualongdong Discovery reminds us that human evolution is neither linear nor uniform, and that Asia hosts multiple evolutionary experiments with unique anatomical results,” said José María Bermú de Z de Castro, an old biologist at Cenieh, in a statement.
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