Is this the face of a new human species? A partial skull recovered from a cave in southwest ChinaPLOS ONE
Scientists are proposing that a centuries-old skull and other bones found in caves in China may represent the remains of an ancient human species that was previously unrecognized. They're basing their interpretation, which was featured in a paper published in PLoS ONE yesterday (March 14), on morphological features of the bones that indicate a mixture of modern human traits and archaic characteristics.
A team of researchers from China and Australia determined that the bones, a partial skull that was unearthed in 1979 and jaw bones and teeth found more recently from a nearby site, were between 11,500 and 14,500 years old. They have dubbed the population from which the artifacts came the "Red Deer Cave" people after one of the dig sites. While the facial ...
