Today's post looks into a new paper published a few days ago, on September 25, 2015 in Science, (Xiaobo Feng et al., The phylogenetic position of the Yunxian cranium elucidates the origin of Homo longi and the Denisovans. Science 389, 1320-1324 (2025). doi:10.1126/science.ado9202)
The authors restored and rebuilt an ancient skull, the Yunxian 2 cranium that had been distorted and compressed. They found that this cranium shows a mosaic of archaic features that " suggest that it is an early member of the Asian H. longi clade, which includes the Denisovans and is the main part of the sister group to the H. sapiens clade. Both the H. sapiens and H. longi clades have deep roots extending beyond the Middle Pleistocene and probably experienced rapid early diversification. Yunxian 2 may preserve transitional features close to the origins of the two clades."
The Yunxian 2 cranium is ancient -0.94 to 1.10 million years (Ma)- and the authors suggest it is close to the last common ancestor to the Homo sapiens and the Homo longi clades, one in Africa and the other in Asia.
This is a major shift in our current knowledge. This specimen pushes the split between modern humans and other hominins further back in time to 1.325 million years ago. The split between these two clades and Neanderthals is also pushed back in this paper to 1.379 Ma.
The tree above shows archaic hominins (top) followed by the Neandrthal, H. longi and H. sapiens clades.
Over the next few days we will be posting about the complex panorama of ancient humans in Southern, Eastern and Southeastern Asia.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
Fantastic work over the many years! Yours is one of my favorite blogs and it's great to see you posting more often now. Are you also on X and cross-posting there? I recently asked Bruce Fenton to look at your blog again (he's a frequent X poster, author of "The Forgotten Exodus").
ReplyDeleteI'm exited to read your upcoming work on Southeast Asia, in particular. I've come to believe that pre-flooded Sunda and Sahul were integral to the development of sapiens/denisovans/hobbits from erectus in that tropical Eden of the past. The Oppenheimer and Fenton books helped form my beliefs years ago, and your blog adds to my constant learning. - Chris in San Diego
Hi Chris, thanks for your encouraging comments!
ReplyDeleteNo, I don´t post on X (Twitter) only on a personal basis. I will check out 'Forgoten Exodus'.
Yes, indeed, the submerged areas around the globe hold a trove of undiscovered evidence of our migration and evolution! Sahul, Sunda, with its H. erectus in Java, the Flores Hobbit, and the Luzon people, plus the early inhabitants of Australia and Papua N. Guinea (the latter with such a strong non-Altai Denisovan genetic component) suggest that this spot was a hot spot of our evolution.
The deluge myths around the world stem from the flooding of these places (Doggerland, the Persian Gulf, the Black Sea, the Strait of Magellan and the Argentine continental shelf, Sunda-Sahul, are some of them).