Scientists have successfully sequenced the DNA of a fragment of a skull belonging to an individual exhibiting characteristics resembling a hybrid between two different human species, excavated from Red Deer Cave (Yunnan – China).
According to Sci-News, the results of the DNA sequencing have provided astonishing data about this mysterious human who lived around 14,000 years ago.
The fragment of bone is a part of the skullcap and belongs to one of three individuals excavated in 1989 from the Red Deer Cave (also known as Maludong) in Yunnan Province, China.
Mysterious human from Red Deer Cave, suspected to be a hybrid between two different human species – (Graphic by Xueping Ji)
Radiocarbon dating results indicate that these fossils date back to the late Pleistocene, approximately 14,000 years ago, a time when modern humans, Homo sapiens, were migrating across the globe.
Among the fossils, the skullcap fragment stands out as it helps reconstruct an unusual skull shape, more similar to Neanderthals than to Homo sapiens, and the brain appears smaller than that of Homo sapiens.
Neanderthals were an extinct human species that share the genus Homo with us, but they disappeared from the earth at least 30,000 years ago. Therefore, this 14,000-year-old individual is believed to be a hybrid between two different human species – a Homo sapiens and Neanderthal hybrid resulting from some form of interbreeding in the past.
However, the new results from DNA sequencing suggest the opposite.
“It clearly tells us that the individual from Red Deer Cave is a modern human (Homo sapiens), not an ancient species like Neanderthals or Denisovans, despite their unusual morphological features,” said Dr. Bing Su from the Kunming Institute of Zoology, a key member of the research team.
This unique DNA sequence indicates that this individual belongs to the maternal lineage that has gone extinct, which is related to some modern human groups currently residing in East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asian islands.
According to The South China Morning Post, another interesting point is that this gene sequence shows a direct relation to Native Americans.
Thus, two hypotheses have been proposed: One is that indigenous people from deep within Asia migrated to Siberia and then moved to North America around 14,000 years ago, when the two continents were still connected by a hypothesized “land bridge” that many studies have questioned. The second is that people from North America migrated back to Asia.
However, the hypothesis of humans migrating from Asia to America is more supported, as there is substantial evidence showing that ancient North America was uninhabited. All Homo sapiens originated from the “cradle” of Africa and crossed into Asia to traverse the land bridge connecting Asia and America, which is considered the most plausible migration route.
