An international team of researchers along with University of Winnipeg paleoanthropologist Dr. Mirjana Roksandic have unearthed a new ancient ancestor to modern humans. The ancient human ancestor is Homo bodoensis, and it lived in Africa during the Middle Pleistocene era, around half a million years ago.
Homo bodoensis was a direct ancestor to modern humans and belongs to the same time in history that gave rise to modern humans, also known as Homo sapiens. However, the evolution of humans during this ancient era is not well understood, something researchers like to call “the muddle in the middle.”
Explaining the mysterious gap
The discovery helps to clarify the mysterious portion of human evolution. Researchers chose the name for the species after re-examining fossils from Africa and Eurasia from the Middle Pleistocene.
DNA evidence shows that some of the fossils found in Europe called H. heidelbergensis was actually early Neanderthals. Bodoensis is a name derived from a skull found Bodo D’ar, Ethiopia, and the species is the direct ancestor of humans. The new name will now be used to describe most Middle Pleistocene humans discovered in Africa. Some of them have been unearthed in Southeast Europe as well.
Neanderthal is one of the close ancient relatives of human beings. Scientists have long known that Neanderthals were capable of building tools and weapons. A recent discovery shows that Neanderthals were also smart enough to create ornaments and art.
Neanderthal had several skills
Researchers from the University of Gottingen and the Lower Saxony State Office for Heritage assessed the newly discovered carved bones from Unicorn Cave in the Harz Mountains. They understood that Neanderthals had good cognitive abilities. New excavations at Unicorn Cape had been going on for the past three years.
This marks the first instance where the team has managed to discover well-preserved layers of cultural artifacts from the Neanderthal period. The team discovered a foot bone that first looked at nothing more than remains from a hunt.
