A team of Chinese and Spanish researchers has published a study in which they reveal the discovery of a few human fossil remains found in the Xujiayao site (China) and that, according to the scientists themselves, are unclassifiable, since they do not belong to any species known human .
The work, which has been published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology , concludes that these remains, made up of a child's maxilla and several teeth, could represent the existence of a new human species that would have inhabited Asia between 60,000 and 120,000 years ago .
According to the Dental Anthropology Group of the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH), the detailed analysis of the dental morphology of the fossils found shows that their owners shared traits with Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and with the most primitive Homo erectus Asiatic, but not related to our species, Homo sapiens or modern humans. It would therefore be a new hominid, not yet described and that would have coexisted with Neanderthals and modern humans in the Upper Pleistocene.
"Our work highlights the great variability of human populations in Asia during the Pleistocene and warns of the need to reconsider the taxonomy of many of the fossils found on this continent, " explains María Martinón-Torres, co-author of the study.
