If the Neanderthal man is well known, another kind of hominids seems to have been discovered. A new analysis of these fossils could rewrite history.
There are tens of thousands of years, several human species coexisted in various places on the planet, while today we, Homo sapiens, are the only survivor. There was of course the man of Neanderthal but he was not the only one. Other hominids, species belonging to the human line, were not identified until much later: this is the case of Homo Floresiensis in 2004, Homo luzonensis in 2019 and finally in 2021, Homo Longgi.
These new classifications have been made thanks to the discovery of fossils, especially found in Asia. Researchers recently looked at the analysis of fossils found in China, whose anthropologists had failed to locate their owners in the human family tree, corresponding to any known species. They had only established that they had lived between 300,000 and 100,000 years ago.
Christopher Bae, professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii, in collaboration with Xiujie Wu, paleoanthropologist, in an article published in the scientific journal Nature Communications At the end of 2024, reported his research concerning the resumption of old studies on these fossils. He came to surprising conclusions. He has, in fact, estimated that these fossils could belong to a new hominid species hitherto unknown and which should therefore be recognized.
The two anthropologists proposed the name “Homo Juluensis”, following one of its surprising characteristics. This new human ancestor has an extremely large brain. However, “ju read” means “huge head” in Chinese. Its cranial capacity is estimated at 1800 cubic centimeters against 1350 cubic centimeters for our species. This does not mean, however, that this species would have possessed superior intelligence, but its capacities were to be very elaborate, no doubt an equal. The wide and low shape of the skull did not correspond to another known hominids. These individuals could have disappeared because of their lifestyle of isolated hunters in a cold and hostile territory.
This proposal to recognize a new species is not yet unanimous among researchers, they believe that it is still too early to act the existence of the Homo Juluensis group. It is also necessary to carry out steps to make a species public, in particular by proving with certainty that the fossils are homogeneous between them and do not correspond to any other species. The whole is then examined by experts. That said, if all the evidence was brought, this would still redefine the history of humanity a little more.