Jaw of lost human cousin that's NOT Neanderthal found at bottom of sea with teeth intact & may only be 10,000 years old
But in a new study, scientists say the bone may belong to one of the most elusive of human ancestors - Denisovans.
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Paleoanthropologists have long debated whether the bone came from a Homo erectus, an archaic Homo sapiens, or a Denisovan.
The bone, known scientifically as Penghu 1, was netted by a fisherman from the floor of the Penghu Channel, about 15.5 miles off the west coast of Taiwan.
A technique that analyses the amino acids and proteins in bones found that the individual it belonged to was male, and most similar to Denisovans.
"The same technique can and is being used to study other hominin fossils to determine whether they too are Denisovans, Neanderthals or other hominin populations," study co-author Frido Welker, a molecular anthropologist at the University of Copenhagen, told Live Science.
Denisovans are a long-extinct human relative who lived at the same time as Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
The species roamed Asia, from the chilly corners of Siberia to humid areas like Taiwan, during the Pleistocene era - between 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago.
"It is now clear that two contrasting hominin groups – small-toothed Neanderthals with tall but gracile mandibles and large-toothed Denisovans with low but robust mandibles coexisted during the late Middle to early Late Pleistocene of Eurasia," the researchers wrote in the study published in Science.
Denisovan fossils remain elusive, so the entire species is shrouded in mystery.
Unlike Neanderthals, whose bones have been found throughout Europe and western Asia for more than a century, Denisovans are mostly known from DNA.
Face of oldest direct human ancestor, which lived 3.8million years ago, revealed by scientists
Only a handful of fossils have ever been found, most of which come from Denisova Cave in Siberia.
Experts have struggled to identify new Denisovan skeletons without a large collection of fossils to compare to.
Little is known, therefore, about where Denisovans lived and how they are related to humans.
Animal bones found alongside the Penghu 1 suggest it may also be the youngest fragment of a Denisovan ever discovered - trumping the current title holder by 30,000 years.
Researchers were unable to use traditional methods such as carbon-14 or uranium dating on the bones because it was waterlogged for so long.
DNA extraction attempts also failed.
However, Welker explained that animal bones found with the jawbone suggest two age ranges - either 10,000 to 70,000 years ago or 130,000 to 190,000 years ago.
"If the specimen falls into the younger age range, it could potentially be the youngest Denisovan found to date," he said.
Currently, the youngest Denisovan fossil, found on the Tibetan Plateau, is 40,000 years old.
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Telegraph
20 minutes ago
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Neanderthals loved to eat maggots, study finds
Neanderthals loved eating maggots and were not the total carnivores people often believed they were, a study has found. It has long been believed that Neanderthals, the ancient cousin species of human ancestors, ate almost nothing but meat in a similar way to lions or wolves. But a study has found this to be incorrect and proves that Neanderthals instead dined largely on maggot-riddled meat. The meat from successful hunts would be stashed and inevitably left to fester but the maggots which took root were also likely a staple of their diet, new analysis has found. Previous studies of Neanderthal remains have shown they had the same chemicals in their bones as hypercarnivore predators, which is indicative of a purely carnivorous diet. This, combined with the knowledge that Neanderthals hunted animals such as mammoths, bison, deer and reindeer, led to the widespread assumption that Neanderthals ate almost nothing but meat. But Dr Melanie Beasley, an anthropologist at Purdue University in Indiana, US, suspected this to be incorrect and studied maggots feasting on human remains to see if they could account for the chemical signature which implies a carnivore diet. Analysis found that when a carcass rots the muscles themselves become only marginally enriched with the specific form of nitrogen found in Neanderthal remains. But when maggots eat the flesh and themselves are consumed these can be up to 43 per cent richer in the nitrogen which scientists have previously thought proved carnivore behaviour. 'We suggest that the nitrogen values are inflated, perhaps substantially so, because these dedicated hunters of large mammals would have stored or cached portions of their kills for later use to compensate for unpredictable returns,' the study team wrote. 'Backup reserves of animal foods, either as packets of processed meat and fat, or as partial or complete carcasses, would have been placed in expedient above-ground rock or log cairns, suspended from tree branches or placed on above-ground racks or stages, immersed in ponds and swamps, or buried in below-ground pits. 'Such reserves, whether fresh, dried, or smoked, readily attracted flies while they were being processed, and, over the use life of the reserve, the contents almost inevitably began to putrefy and become infested with maggots.' This slowly rotting meat which was being devoured by maggots could have been eaten weeks, months, or even years after it was first hunted, the scientists concluded. Human bodies buried for study To gauge what nutrients maggots contained the scientists buried 34 human bodies donated for research at the Body Farm facility of the University of Tennessee. After two years, the maggots were studied and it was found that they were the likely reason for the high nitrogen content in Neanderthal remains that led to the assumption they were almost exclusively carnivores. Another factor in the scientists' conclusion about the Neanderthal diet is that it is impossible for a human body to survive for very long if it is consuming more than 300g of protein a day. Prolonged exposure to a diet beyond this, which is around 1,200 calories of pure protein, can lead to 'rabbit starvation' in which the body begins to shut down. This biological incompatibility with the protein-heavy diet and the maggot nitrogen finding are strong evidence that the Neanderthal was not a hypercarnivore like lions, the scientists say. 'A lion, on average, consumes anywhere from double to four-and-a-half times more protein per kg of body weight than the absolute maximum a Late Pleistocene hominin would be capable of tolerating,' the scientists wrote. The Neanderthal diet was likely to have included tongue, ribs, briskets, entrails, kidneys and other internal organs, and probably also the brain, the scientists believe. 'Fascination' of hypercarnivore image But Dr Beasley believes Neanderthals 'often ate these fat-rich tissues in a tainted or putrefied state together with their almost inevitable infestation of living and dead maggots'. 'It seems very likely that Late Pleistocene hominins would often have found themselves consuming animal foods from tainted or putrefied reserves laced with living and dead maggots,' she told The Telegraph. 'I think for a long time the hypercarnivore narrative about Neanderthals has been wrong but that image adds to their exceptionalism and fascination, so that narrative has persisted. 'Hominins ate meat regularly starting with Homo erectus, but they ate a diversity of other foods too. 'We are just saying that we need to consider those other dietary inputs like the inevitable stored foods laced with fatty maggots that would have been nutritionally beneficial.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Neanderthals were not ‘hypercarnivores' and feasted on maggots, scientists say
For hungry Neanderthals, there was more on the menu than wild mammals, roasted pigeon, seafood and plants. Chemical signatures in the ancient bones point to a nutritious and somewhat inevitable side dish: handfuls of fresh maggots. The theory from US researchers undermines previous thinking that Neanderthals were 'hypercarnivores' who stood at the top of the food chain with cave lions, sabre-toothed tigers and other beasts that consumed impressive quantities of meat. Rather than feasting on endless mammoth steaks, they stored their kills for months, the scientists believe, favouring the fatty parts over lean meat, and the maggots that riddled the putrefying carcasses. 'Neanderthals were not hypercarnivores, their diet was different,' said John Speth, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Michigan. 'It's likely maggots were a major food.' Neanderthals were thought to be top of the food chain because of the high levels of heavy nitrogen in their bones. Nitrogen builds up in living organisms when they metabolise protein in their food. A lighter form of the element, nitrogen-14, is excreted more readily than the heavier form, nitrogen-15. As a result, heavy nitrogen builds up in organisms with each step up the food chain, from plants to herbivores to carnivores. While the levels of heavy nitrogen in Neanderthal bones place them at the top of the food chain, they would not have been able to handle the amount of meat needed to reach those levels, the researchers say. 'Humans can only tolerate up to about 4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, whereas animals like lions can tolerate anywhere from two to four times that much protein safely,' said Speth. Since many Indigenous groups around the world routinely consume maggots in putrefied meat, the researchers decided to explore their potential role. The experiments were not for the squeamish. Dr Melanie Beasley, a member of the team at Purdue University in Indiana, was formerly at the Forensic Anthropology Center, or Body Farm, at the University of Tennessee. There, researchers study donated human corpses that are left to decompose. The work helps forensic scientists hone their techniques, for example, to ascertain for how long people have been dead. Beasley measured heavy nitrogen in putrefying muscle and the maggots that infested the corpses. Heavy nitrogen rose slightly as muscle putrefied, but was far higher in the maggots. The same process would have occurred in carcasses the Neanderthals stored, Beasley said. The finding, reported in Science Advances, suggests that rather than consuming meat as ravenously as lions and other hypercarnivores, Neanderthals acquired high levels of heavy nitrogen by eating maggots, which themselves were enriched with heavy nitrogen. 'The only reason this is surprising is that it contradicts what we westerners think of as food,' said Karen Hardy, professor of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Glasgow. 'Elsewhere in the world, a very wide range of things are eaten, and maggots are a great source of protein, fat and essential amino acids.' 'It is a no brainer for Neanderthals,' she added. 'Put out a bit of meat, leave it for a few days then go back and harvest your maggots, its a very easy way to get good nutritious food.' 'How does it shift our thinking? The Neanderthals as top carnivores was nonsense, it was physiologically impossible. So this makes sense, but also explains these high nitrogen signals in a way that nothing else has done so clearly,' Hardy said.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Neanderthals were not ‘hypercarnivores' and feasted on maggots, scientists say
For hungry Neanderthals, there was more on the menu than wild mammals, roasted pigeon, seafood and plants. Chemical signatures in the ancient bones point to a nutritious and somewhat inevitable side dish: handfuls of fresh maggots. The theory from US researchers undermines previous thinking that Neanderthals were 'hypercarnivores' who stood at the top of the food chain with cave lions, sabre-toothed tigers and other beasts that consumed impressive quantities of meat. Rather than feasting on endless mammoth steaks, they stored their kills for months, the scientists believe, favouring the fatty parts over lean meat, and the maggots that riddled the putrefying carcasses. 'Neanderthals were not hypercarnivores, their diet was different,' said John Speth, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Michigan. 'It's likely maggots were a major food.' Neanderthals were thought to be top of the food chain because of the high levels of heavy nitrogen in their bones. Nitrogen builds up in living organisms when they metabolise protein in their food. A lighter form of the element, nitrogen-14, is excreted more readily than the heavier form, nitrogen-15. As a result, heavy nitrogen builds up in organisms with each step up the food chain, from plants to herbivores to carnivores. While the levels of heavy nitrogen in Neanderthal bones place them at the top of the food chain, they would not have been able to handle the amount of meat needed to reach those levels, the researchers say. 'Humans can only tolerate up to about 4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, whereas animals like lions can tolerate anywhere from two to four times that much protein safely,' said Speth. Since many Indigenous groups around the world routinely consume maggots in putrefied meat, the researchers decided to explore their potential role. The experiments were not for the squeamish. Dr Melanie Beasley, a member of the team at Purdue University in Indiana, was formerly at the Forensic Anthropology Center, or Body Farm, at the University of Tennessee. There, researchers study donated human corpses that are left to decompose. The work helps forensic scientists hone their techniques, for example, to ascertain for how long people have been dead. Beasley measured heavy nitrogen in putrefying muscle and the maggots that infested the corpses. Heavy nitrogen rose slightly as muscle putrefied, but was far higher in the maggots. The same process would have occurred in carcasses the Neanderthals stored, Beasley said. The finding, reported in Science Advances, suggests that rather than consuming meat as ravenously as lions and other hypercarnivores, Neanderthals acquired high levels of heavy nitrogen by eating maggots, which themselves were enriched with heavy nitrogen. 'The only reason this is surprising is that it contradicts what we westerners think of as food,' said Karen Hardy, professor of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Glasgow. 'Elsewhere in the world, a very wide range of things are eaten, and maggots are a great source of protein, fat and essential amino acids.' 'It is a no brainer for Neanderthals,' she added. 'Put out a bit of meat, leave it for a few days then go back and harvest your maggots, its a very easy way to get good nutritious food.' 'How does it shift our thinking? The Neanderthals as top carnivores was nonsense, it was physiologically impossible. So this makes sense, but also explains these high nitrogen signals in a way that nothing else has done so clearly,' Hardy said.
