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New archaeological discovery of 140,000 years ago


A new prehistoric human, hitherto unknown to academia, has been discovered by an Israeli excavation team. A research team from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has discovered a new type of early humans dating back to 140,000 to 120,000 years ago at the Nesher Ramla prehistoric site in Israel announced.

According to the research team, this human being called the 'Nesher Ramla Homo type' shares the morphological features of Neanderthals (especially teeth and jaws) and other ancient humans of the genus Homo (especially skulls).

In addition, the skull structure is completely different from that of modern people, the jaw is not developed, and it has large teeth, so it is very different from modern people.

According to the results of this study, the research team believes that this Nescher Ramla homotype is the 'source' of almost all humans that occurred during the Middle Pleistocene (474,000 to 130,000 years ago).

The research team also suggested that the Nesher Ramlean population may be a so-called 'missing' population, produced by interbreeding with Homo sapiens, which arrived in the region about 200,000 years ago. The anatomically modern Homo sapiens were excavated in 2018-19 from the ruins of the Misliya Cave in Israel, believed to be the first Homo sapiens site outside Africa.

The common ancestor of Neanderthals in Europe and ancient Homo in Asia

The discovery study included a team from Tel Aviv University, led by Dr. Hila May, a dentist, and Dr. Rachel Sarig, a dentist with the same specialization as Israel Hershkovitz, anatomy and anthropologist at the medical school, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Two groups of researchers have involved: an archaeological team led by Dr. Yossi Zaidner of the Institute of Archeology.

The research team believes that the Nesher Ramla homotype is a common ancestor of the Neanderthals of Europe and the genus Ancient Homo of Asia.

Professor Hershkovitz emphasized that the 'discovery of a new type of homo' is scientifically important. This will renew our understanding of previously discovered human fossils, add another piece to the puzzle of human evolution, and help us understand the migration of prehistoric humans.

"The Nesher Ramlines lived a long time ago in the middle Pleistocene, but they can reveal many interesting facts about the evolution and way of life of their descendants," he added.

Interacting with Homo sapiens

The Nesher Ramla human fossils were unearthed by Dr. Zaidner of the Hebrew University at a prehistoric site in the mining area of ​​the Nesher Cement Factory near the city of Ramla. After digging down about 8 meters, they found many animal bones, including horses, deer, aurox bones and stone tools, and human bones.

An international team of researchers led by a team from Tel Aviv and Hebrew University has identified a previously unknown bone morphology belonging to a new type of homo. It was the first homotype identified in Israel and was customarily named the Nesher Ramla homotype after the excavation site.

"This is an astonishing discovery," said Dr. Yoshi Zaidner of Hebrew University. "We never imagined that ancient Homo would roam with Homo sapiens so late in human history."

"The archaeological finds related to human fossils confirm that the Nesher Ramlines possessed advanced stone tools production techniques, suggesting that they may have interacted with the local Homo sapiens," said Dr.

The culture, lifestyle, and behavior of the Nesher Ramlines were discussed in a companion paper in the journal Science.

Opposition to the theory that Neanderthals started in Europe

Professor Hershkovitz said the discovery of the Nesher Ramla homotype contradicts the general hypothesis that Neanderthals originated in Europe.

'Before these new discoveries, most researchers believed that Neanderthals were a 'story of Europe'," he said. "According to him, a small group of Neanderthals migrated south to escape from spreading glaciers, some of them in Israel about 70,000 years ago. I think we have arrived on the ground.”

The Nesher Ramla fossils question this theory. The ancestors of European Neanderthals lived in the Middle East and the Levant about 400,000 years ago, and from there migrated repeatedly to Europe in the west and Asia in the east.

"In fact, this finding suggests that Neanderthals in Western Europe are nothing more than a remnant of a much larger population that lived here in the Levant," said Professor Hershkovitz.

Is it the puzzle piece that Nesher Ramla's Homotype lost?

Despite the lack of DNA in these fossils, according to Dr. Hela May, the findings offer a solution to the big puzzle in homo evolution.

An important question is how the Homo sapiens gene got into the Neanderthals who lived there long before these Homo sapiens arrived in Europe.

Geneticists who have studied the DNA of European Neanderthals have previously referred to populations that interbreed with Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago as 'disappearing groups' or 'groups X' and have suggested that groups similar to Neanderthals existed.

In an anthropology paper published in the journal Science, the team suggested that the Nesher Ramla homotype could represent the missing population that has been missing from the human fossil record so far.

The team also said that Nesher Ramlein is not the only type of human found in the area. Fossils from the Caves of Tabun (160,000 years ago), Zuttiyeh (250,000 years ago), and Qesem Cave (400,000 years ago) previously discovered in Israel. Humans are now Nesher Ramla It belongs to a group of humans called homotypes.

The Levant region is a bridgehead for Eurasia exchanges

"People tend to think of it as a paradigm, and try to attribute these fossils to known human groups like Homo sapiens, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, or Neanderthals," said Dr. Rachel Saric. It is a group that showed distinct characteristics and characteristics in itself.”

"At a later stage, a small group of Nesher Ramla homomorphs migrated to Europe, where they evolved into the 'classical' Neanderthals we are familiar with, and also went to Asia to find archaic humans with Neanderthal-like characteristics," said Dr. done,” he explained.

He said, “The land of Israel is the crossroads of Africa, Europe and Asia, and it served as a melting pot of different population groups and later spread to the Old World such as Europe, Asia, and Africa. It marks a new and fascinating chapter in human history.”

Professor Gerhard Weber of the University of Vienna predicts that the evolutionary story of Neanderthals will depend on the discovery.

“Europe was not the exclusive refugium where Neanderthals often spread into western Asia,” he said. “There was much more lateral exchange in Eurasia, and the Levant was a geographically important starting point or bridgehead in this process. I think it is,” he said.

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