ten discoveries concerning our human forefathers from 2021

 

pixabay.com

Our forebears have become more familiar to us in the past year.

 

There is still so much we don't know about our human predecessors and relatives that lived hundreds to millions of years ago. Various clues were examined in 2021, including ancient skulls that demonstrated the evolution of Homo brains, bones from newly unknown Homo species, and preserved footprints that showed how early humans arrived in North America.

 

In the year 2021, scientists discovered some astonishing findings regarding our ancestors.

 

1 . Humans had ape-like brains in the early days.

 

There was a time when humans weren't as intelligent as they are today. According to a study published in the journal Science (opens in a new tab) in April, early members of the genus Homo had brains similar to apes; it wasn't until 1.7 million to 1.5 million years ago that we developed "advanced" brains. To put it another way, complex brains in Homo sapiens required almost a million years to emerge.

 

Humans and our closest extant ape cousins have similar skull endocasts (the inside of their cranium where the brain rests), and researchers discovered this by examining these endocasts. Humans' frontal lobes, which process difficult cognitive activities, were shown to have developed over a long period.

 

2 . We may be closer to "Dragon Man" than Neanderthals.

 

According to three studies published in June in the journal The Innovation, an ancient human skull discovered in China has led to the identification of a new species: Homo long, or "Dragon man." Even the Neanderthals, previously thought to be our closest cousins, may have a distant relative in this new species. The estimated 146,000-year-old skull belonged to a male who died around 50 and is the largest Homo sapiens skull on record.

 

However, the conclusion is disputed. Unaffiliated with the study, three leading authorities on human evolution all questioned whether or not Dragon Man is genuinely descended from the enigmatic Denisovan human lineage.

 

3 . An ancient "Child of Darkness" skull was found in a cavern.

 

In South Africa, how did the skeletal bones of a young Homo Naledi kid end up in a tight, dark passageway? Our guess is as good as yours, so don't hesitate to chime in. The little child's skull, which they've named "Leti," was discovered in a distant portion of a cave system in what appears to be an intended burial by scientists.

 

Leti is one of more than two dozen H. Naledi individuals whose remains have been discovered in the cave system since 2013. He lived between 335,000 and 241,000 years ago. Human Naledi was found to be 4 feet, 9 inches (1.44 meters) tall and weigh between 88.5 and 123.6 pounds, according to these individuals (about 40 and 56 kilograms).

 

4 . In addition to Homo bodoensis, a direct human predecessor can be found in the fossil record.

 

A new species of human that may be a direct progenitor of Homo sapiens has been discovered through a reexamination of a 600,000-year-old skull discovered in 1976. Human lineages may better understand how they spread and interacted across the globe with this revelation.

 

However, the skull wasn't only rediscovered by researchers. A survey of human fossils dating from 774,000 to 129,000 years old was carried out instead. A slew of evidence pointed to the previously named species H. heidelbergensis and H. rhodesiensis being problematic.H. bodoensis specimens may now be categorized as H. heidelbergensis specimens. According to a study published in Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews in October, further study of Homo individuals from this period may uncover previously identified species.

 

5 . Human burials in Indonesia reflect a long-lost lineage.

 

Traces from long-ago human history aren't always visible. A previously unknown human ancestry in Indonesia was discovered after a 7,200-year-old grave was unearthed. Her ancestry can be traced back to the Aboriginal Australians and Melanesians or Indigenous people of New Guinea and the western Pacific Islands.

 

Like Aboriginal Australians and New Guineans, this woman carried a high percentage of DNA from an ancient human species known as the Denisovans. It's possible that modern humans and Denisovans met in Indonesia and the neighboring islands, according to a study published in Nature in August.

 

6. A 78,000-year-old deliberate African human burial

 

Panga ya Saidi cave's earliest Homo sapiens burial, an infant's grave, is roughly 78,000 years old. Jorge González/Elena Santos provided the image.

Around 78,000 years ago, a tiny kid was buried in a cave in Kenya, making it Africa's oldest known intentional human burial. Mtoto, a Swahili word for "child," was curled up on their side as if they were sleeping. The researchers found that Mtoto's head may have been put on a cushion.

 

A study published in Nature in May claims to have found evidence of the first purposeful human burials in Africa, dating back 120,000 years to the time of H. sapiens in Europe and the Middle East.

 

7 . The Arabian Peninsula's significance has been shown by massive genome analysis.

 

Research on Arab genomes has revealed precisely how important the Arabian Peninsula was too early human migration from Africa. Researchers analyzed the DNA of 6,218 Middle Eastern adults and compared it to that of ancient and modern people from around the globe.

 

The study found that Middle Eastern tribes contributed large genetic contributions to European, South Asian, and even South American populations, possibly because people of Middle Eastern origin interbred with those populations as Islam spread worldwide over the previous 1,400 years. Moreover, a study published in the journal Nature Communications in October concluded that Arabian tribes broke from early Africans about 90,000 years ago, about the same period Europeans and South Asians split from early Africans (opens in new tab). Using this evidence, we can conclude that early people fled Africa via Arabia.

 

8. The first Americans' genes are identical to the Australians.

 

Genes from ancestral Australasian DNA were present in the first wave of first Americans that crossed the Bering Land Bridge and invaded North America during the last Ice Age. Those who call themselves Australians are the indigenous peoples of the Indian Ocean islands of Australia, New Guinea, and the Maldives.

 

Generations later, Indigenous South American populations still carry these Australasian strands of DNA. That being said, it appears that this DNA was carried by only one wave of the first Americans and that later waves were devoid of it.

 

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in April, there were likely coupling episodes between the progenitors of the early Americans and the Australasians in Beringia or perhaps even Siberia.

 

9 . The Americas' oldest known fossilized footprints

 

It's still unclear exactly when the first inhabitants of the United States arrived during the last ice age. New evidence suggests that humans were here much earlier than previously thought, based on 60 footprints found in an ancient lakebed in White Sands National Park in New Mexico, dating back between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago.

 

According to research published in Science in September, these footprints are not the earliest evidence of human habitation in the Americas, but they serve as the first concrete confirmation that people lived in the region during the Last Glacial Maximum around 26,500 to 19,000 years ago.

 

10 . Discoveries of the earliest-known Denisovan fossils

 

200,000-year-old Denisovan fossils have recently been unearthed in a Siberian cave, making them the oldest fossils yet uncovered.

 

According to a study on DNA retrieved from Denisovan remains, the Denisovan may have once been prevalent throughout continental Asia. But there are a few of them left. Since the discovery of Denisova Cave in Siberia, there have only been six recognized members of the Denisovan family. Researchers now have the remains of three more Denisovans from Denisova Cave, thanks to this discovery.

 

Perhaps this intriguing species won't be as mysterious in the future if researchers keep unearthing Denisovan bones.

Reference : https://www.livescience.com/10-discoveries-human-evolution-2021

Image source : https://pixabay.com/id/photos/fosil-amon-hal-membatu-siput-111498/

 Who are the ancestors to humans?

What are the 3 human ancestors?

What was the first human ancestor?

Who were the first humans?

Who was the first true man?

Did humans have a tail?