A paper published in Science (A Middle Pleistocene Homo from Nesher Ramla, Israel) concludes that fossils found in Neshr Ramla (NR), Israel, are a "previously unrecognized group of hominins representing the last surviving populations of Middle Pleistocene Homo in Europe, southwest Asia, and Africa.".
The paper states:
"The NR fossils could represent late-surviving examples (140 to 120 ka) of a distinctive Southwest Asian MP Homo group, predating Levantine Neanderthals from Amud, Kebara, and Ein Qashish (70 to 50 ka). On the basis of their mosaic morphology showing a different degree of Neanderthal features, other MP Levantine fossils, whose taxonomic affinities have long been debated, from the sites of Qesem Cave (19), Zuttiyeh Cave (30), and probably Tabun Cave (31), might also be attributed to this group (supplementary text F). Adopting the cautious approach advocated by Mayr (32), we suggest addressing this Levantine MP paleodeme as the “Nesher Ramla Homo.” Its presence from ~420 to 120 ka ago in a geographically restricted area may have allowed for repeated interbreeding with modern human populations such as the people from Misliya Cave (20), a notion also supported by their shared technological tradition [(6); supplementary text F]. This scenario is compatible with evidence of an early (200 to 400 ka ago) gene flow between modern humans and Neanderthals (3, 4) and helps explain the variable expression of the dental and skeletal features of later Levantine fossils from the Skhul and Qafzeh populations, a phenomenon noted by anthropologists since the 1930s (31, 33). Moreover, a recent study of the Atapuerca SH and Arago dental remains (1) suggested the existence of more than one Homo lineage in MP Europe [see also (34)] and hypothesized the contribution of Levantine Homo groups carrying Neanderthal-like traits to European Homo lineages. The NR Homo, carrying Neanderthal-like traits, could thus represent the “source” population postulated in the demographic “sources and sinks” model (5), according to which Western Europe was repopulated through a series of successive migrations."
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