Upon observing the partial femur in a Chinese Red Deer Cave, scientists believe that the pre-modern species of humans could have overlapped with modern humans right into the ice age.
A thigh bone fragment believed to be 14,000 years old was found in a Chinese cave and might represent evidence of unexpected survival of human ancestors who have long vanished.
f the present finding is true, then right into the ice age and through it, a creature that was either Homo erectus or Homo habilis survived along the Neanderthals, the unknown humans who have left behind some of their DNA in a Siberian cave, the Indonesian Island of Flores and modern day Homo sapiens. At the end of the multicultural ice age some 10,000 years back, only a single human species has survived.
The fossil representing a partial femur now discovered had survived about 25 years without any study being undertaken in one of the museums in Yunnan, in southeast China. It was kept among a set of fossilized remains found in Maludong Cave which translates to Red Deer Cave in the year 1989.
The researchers involved in this study report that the according to their estimation, the fragmented bone matched those obtained from species like Homo erectus and Homo habilis, who were among the first to stalk the planet some 1.5 million years ago. They added further that the young age possibly suggests that primitive looking humans could perhaps have survived until pretty late in our evolution, but we need to exercise caution since it is just a single bone. The researchers went on to add that the new find also hints at the possibility of pre-modern species could have overlapped in time with the modern humans on mainland Eastern Asia, but that case would need to be built up gradually with the discovery of more bones.
The find, however, comes a bit too late for reference in the new gallery of human evolution at South Kensington’s Natural History Museum. However, Chris Stringer, who is the head of research into the origins of humans at the museum, has greeted the find with an amount of caution. He added that apart from being an isolated bone, the size is not even half of a femur. He said more complete material would be needed to comment further on this premise.
Be that as it may, the riddle of the people of the Red Deer Cave gets further more challenging. There are more questions that beg an answer now.