Mysterious fossils found in Israel change the history of human evolution

In a recently excavated site in Israel, dated around 140.000 to 120.000 years, fossils have been extracted from a population of archaic hominids unknown so far.They have called it ‘Homo type Nesher Ramla’, for the site where it was found.Archaeologists excavated about eight meters from the surface and also found large amounts of animal bones, such as horses, gamos and uros, as well as stone tools.The study, published by the journal Science, is led by Israel Heshkovitz from the University of Tel Aviv (Israel) and has a Spanish participation.

"The main author of the article has not considered appropriate to propose a new species, but to explain that Nesher Ramla is part of a paleopoblation (paleodeme) closely related to other paleodemes of the Levantine corridor.The decision is successful, because this continental passage zone was very populated in relative terms throughout the Pleistocene.Distinguish between species in these circumstances is risky, ”says José María Bermúdez de Castro, coordinator of the Paleobiology Program of the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (Cenieh) and co -author of the study.

Nesher Ramla has a mixture of archaic features of the genus Homo and Neanderthals, and can personify the mother population from which the latter and some Asian populations of the middle Pleistocene originated."That combination of features can be the product of different paleodeme hybridization living in a restricted area," continues Bermúdez de Castro.

Therefore, since these remains have not been attributed to a new species, they have been grouped with other sites of the Middle East, difficult to classify.The authors of the work consider that they all made up a local population of humans that occupied the region between about 420.000 and 120.000 years.

In describing the importance of the finding, Hershkovitz says: "It allows us to give a new meaning to the human fossils found above, add another piece to the puzzle of human evolution and understand migrations in the ancient world.Nesher Ramla can tell us a fascinating story, which reveals a lot about the evolution and way of life of his descendants ".

Human evolution in Eurasia

The researchers conducted virtual reconstructions of fossils to analyze them through sophisticated computer programs and compare them with other remains of Europe, Africa and Asia.

The remains, a fragment of a parietal and an almost complete jaw with part of the dentition, have an age of about 130.000 years.The skull shows more typical characteristics of the Homo erectus species, while in dentition and jaw there are already traits usually present in Neanderthal populations.

For this reason Nesher Ramla would be a late survivor of a population that inhabited 400 years ago.000 years, potencialmente representada en los fósiles de los yacimientos israelíes de Qesem y Zuttiyeh, y a partir de la cual se habrían originado los neandertales de Europa.

“The population of Nesher Ramla can be related to the origin of some of the migratory waves that arrived in Europe during the middle pleistoceneo, already with notable Neanderthal influences in their morphology.The most important conclusion is that the origin of the Neanderthals is not in Europe but in this region of southwest Asia, ”says Cenieh's scientist.

María Martinón-Torres, director of the CENIEH and co-author of the study, underlines SNC: “Thanks to the fact that we now know that during the same period they inhabited the Homo Sapiens lift corridor-at least 200 ago 200 ago.000 years, como documentan los yacimientos de Misliya en Israel–, los neandertales y poblaciones que preceden a los neandertales (como las de Nesher Ramla), tenemos ya el lugar y el momento en el que se pudo producir el cruce genético que se ha propuesto en otros estudios”, afirma.

For Rolf Quam, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Binghamton (USA): "It is a complicated story, but what we are learning is that the interactions between different human species in the past were much more convoluted than we had appreciated evennow".

Extinction and genetic trace

The finding opens the doors to a new way of understanding the population of Europe.“The origin of all the populations of the Pleiestocene that came to our continent could originate in southwest Asia.This argument is the one that has been proposing for a decade the team of paleoanthropologists that investigates in the CENIH and that are co -authors of the article, ”says Bermúdez de Castro.

Martinón-Torres reaffirms it, since the study supports the proposal of its dental anthropology group defends that it has not been a linear process, but an intermittent dripping of hominins originated elsewhere, probably the Middle East."In this scenario, Nesher Ramla would be a representative of that mother population who gave rise to Neanderthals and in Asia to other populations whose taxonomic assignment is not yet clear (Xujiayao, Maba, Tongzi)," he argues.

All the humans of the Pleistocene disappeared, leaving only their genetic trail in modern populations."The extinction of Neanderthals in Europe can be explained by the devastating effect of the last glaciation, the drastic consequent decrease in the neanderthals of northern Eurasia, the search for refuge of surviving neandertals, which led to pernicious consanguinity," said the scientific.

However, the residents of Southwest Asia were protected from this process in a privileged area."That is why it is not easy to explain their disappearance, unless our species would move them completely from their places to obtain resources during the last great expansion of Homo Sapiens out of Africa," he emphasizes.

Use of advanced techniques

The Nesher Ramla homo was found next to instruments whose technology was associated until recently with more modern lineages.In a complementary study, also published in Science, Yossi Zaidner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, provides the archaeological context of the remains, by providing the radiometric ages, as well as the knowledge about the behavior and environment of the artifacts.Together, they try narrow cultural interactions and genetic mix between different human lineages prior to 120 ago.000 years.

"The interpretation of Nesher Ramla fossils and stone tools will find different reactions among paleoanthropologists.However, the age of Nesher Ramla's material, the non -coincident morphological and archaeological affinities and the location of the site at the crossroads of Africa and Eurasia make it an important discovery, "writes Marta Lahr, in a text of perspective regarding thisresearch.

For Bermúdez de Castro, “technology, like anatomy, seems to have an influence of all those paleodemes.The information is transmitted from one to another and the result is the most advanced stone technology that is known in that area and at that time.This is the Levallois technique [Complex Procedure of Losado], used both by the populations of Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthalensis of the region, ”he explains.

Martinón-Torres, adds: “This type of technology, sophisticated, and with a very specific production sequence and size, it is difficult to develop without someone teaching you.The fact that H so much H.sapiens, like h.Neanderthalensis and populations of the Middle Pleistocene in the Levante have developed it, it can be interpreted as evidence of cultural exchange between different species ”.

In this way, the Levantine corridor appears as a hot point of biological and cultural diversity where there was probably a narrow interaction between different human species.

This work has not done, for the moment, ancient DNA studies in Nesher Ramla, however, they refer to an earlier study in which it was proposed that the Neanderthals had hybridized with H.sapiens between the end of the middle and beginning of the upper pleistocene.

“The study enhances the weight that the Eurasian continent has had in human evolution and, in particular, in the population of Europe.Displaces the epicenter of Attention from Africa to Eurasia, particularly to the Middle East, a true crossroads between continents and, therefore, between species, ”concludes Martinón-Torres.

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