Reanalyzing ancient fossils revealed that they are from a new hominin group, which lived in Africa 600,000 years ago. This new species deserves a name.
Artists rendering of Homo Bodoensis, an entirely new species of human ancestor who lived in Africa Ettore Makazza
Homo bodonsis, a new species of extinct human, has been identified. This species was not identified using new fossils but re-examinations of older ones. Researchers believe there may be another species of human. Here's what you should know.
Who was Homo bodonsis?
Homo Bodoensis, the proposed name for fossils from a group hominins who lived in Africa between 770,000 to 126,000 years ago, is what the Middle Pleistocene period, also known as the Middle Plistocene. Mirjana Roksandic, University of Winnipeg, Canada and her collaborators have described the species. It was named after the Bodo Cranium, which was discovered in 1976 at Bodo Dar, in the Awash River valley of Ethiopia. It is approximately 600,000 years old.
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Researchers claim that H. bodoensis was a widespread species throughout Africa over hundreds of thousands of year. Other specimens of this species are the Kabwe 1 from Zambia, Ndutu (and Ngaloba) skulls from Tanzania, and the Saldanha Cranium from Elandsfontein (South Africa). They believe that H. bodoensis could have also wandered into eastern Mediterranean.
How were these fossils classified before?
There were many species designations that were given to them, and they were often used in conflicting ways. Depending on the studies that you have read, the Bodo cranium was sometimes called Homo heidelbergensis, or Homo rhodesiensis. It is difficult to identify which species it is.
H. heidelbergensis was named after a 609,000-year old jawbone discovered in Mauer, Germany. Many similar bones have been found in Europe and Africa since the Middle Pleistocene. However, researchers disagree on whether all of them are H. heidelbergensis.
H. rhodesiensis, which was the first to be named for the Kabwe 1 skull, was also discovered. This bone was discovered in 1921 in Zambia. It was previously called Northern Rhodesia. The British Empire ruled the area at the time. Cecil Rhodes was a British politician and mining magnate who gave the name Rhodesia its origins. Roksandic claims that the name is seldom used partly because of this association.
What were the other hominins who lived in the Middle Pleistocene era?
A lot. This period saw the emergence of the Neanderthals in Europe. Further east, the Denisovans, their sister group, also emerged. Homo naledi was a southern African species. Modern humans (Homo sapiens), emerged in Africa about 300,000 years ago, approximately halfway through the Middle Plistocene.
This mess of species is known as the Middle Pleistocene muddle. It is difficult to determine which fossils belong which species, and how common and long-lived each species is. It is also important to determine which species gave rise.
It was once believed that H. heidelbergensis was Neanderthal's ancestor. This is not true, as genetics shows that Neanderthals appeared in the Middle Pleistocene. It may have been even before the fossils of H. heidelbergensis. Neanderthals were living in northern Spain around 430,000 years ago. Many European specimens that were previously called H. heidelbergensis in the last five years have been reclassified to early Neanderthals.
How does H. bodoensis fit in all this?
Roksandic, along with her colleagues, want to understand the confusion. They claim that all African fossils, previously known as H. heidelbergensis and H. rhodesiensis, should be regarded as one species: H. bodoensis. They argue that this species eventually gave rise to ours.
They say that H. heidelbergensis can be reclassified in Europe as early Neanderthals and that fossils of the eastern Mediterranean could indicate interbreeding.
Roksandic says that H. bodoensis was chosen by the team to give these African hominins an African name.
Do you all agree that we need a new species' name?
Chris Stringer, London's Natural History Museum, said that it is not necessary.
Stringer agrees that H. heidelbergensis was used too loosely. He admits that heidelbergensis is being used in a wide range of settings, and blames me. He believes it should be limited to the original Mauer jawbone, and other European fossils such as the BH-1 Jawbone from Mala Balanica Cave in Serbia.
Stringer will happily use H. Rhodesiensis for the African remains. Stringer argues that it was named after the country it was discovered, not Cecil Rhodes, and so doesn't honor him. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature rules state that established names have priority. Therefore, H. rhodesiensis should be used, unless it is incorrectly described.
Stringer also states that H. rhodesiensis can be used if it is not suitable due to its imperial connotations. Matthew Drennan, in the 1950s, gave the name Homo saldanensis to the Saldanha cranium that Roksandics placed in H. bodoensis. Stringer says that even if you get rid of rhodesiensis there are still other names that could be used.
Stringer is skeptical about the claims that the Bodo Cranium is our direct ancestor. His team published a 2019 study on the evolution of human faces. It found that the Bodo cranium's species had taken a different evolutionary route than our species.
Journal reference: Evolutionary Anthropology DOI: 10.1002/EVAN.21929
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