? Are we the only human race that has ever lived on Earth
The BBC News Agency published a report on the human races that preceded modern humans, and indicated that the current humans had co-existed more than 40,000 years ago in Europe with three other human species; They called them "Neanderthals". A scientific study published in 2011 indicates that these human species appeared more than 100,000 years before the "first Homo sapiens". What are the human races mentioned in the study? How did they end up?
Homo erectus fossil alters 'human family tree'
In 1996 The New York Times published a scientific event that changed the shape of the “human family tree” forever; As scientists re-examined two major fossil sites along the Sulu River on the Indonesian island of Java, where the last fossil remains of proto-human beings were discovered in 1930, scientists examined for the second time what they called "Solo Man", the first Homo erectus, and indicated that he lived there From 53 thousand to 27 thousand years ago.
The scientific article published in the journal Science at the time was promising. She indicated that Homo erectus has lived in Southeast Asia longer than anywhere else in the world. Based on this information, the Sulu River Man, which evolved 1.8 million years ago, escaped extinction after about 250,000 years, and lived in Indonesia alongside modern humans, as well as Neanderthals.
(When the first humans lived with us side by side)
Before the publication of this study, for two decades, scientists mistakenly believed that human lineages evolve in a simple way from one species to another, in the form of a qualitative leap, and that it is impossible for two species to coexist in the same place and time. However, these fossil discoveries have proven the contemporaneity of three types of Neanderthals to modern humans, and they lived in Europe and Western Asia from about 300,000 years ago to 30,000 years ago; Neanderthals last appeared in southern Spain.
These fossil sites in Java, Indonesia, are to this day the last known settlement of Homo erectus, where researchers go to explore the depths of the life of neanderthals. In a study published last December, researchers found the fossil remains of animals, in addition to 12 skulls dating back to « Homo erectus.” Scientists set out to try to date the layers of the earth surrounding the site in order to make an accurate record in an attempt to determine the age of the last Neanderthals.
Study co-author Keira Westaway points out that evolution is a very complex process that we can think of as a meeting between family members, grandparents and cousins, but that it belongs to the "tree of human evolution", and helps us understand other species and the reasons that led to their extinction, In another statement , the researcher involved in the study, Russell Sechon, points out that Homo erectus was incredibly long-lived, and is considered one of the most successful human species that ever lived on Earth, but it became extinct due to climate change, according to him.
Three types of hominids lived at the same time
Before modern humans migrated from Africa, Homo erectus had colonized the world a few million years. Scientific studies indicate that Homo erectus lived in Java, Indonesia, about 100,000 years ago, which means that they lived there before the migration of Homo sapiens from Africa, and they were all present at the same time as two other types of humans similar to the "hobbit". It is an imaginary race of short human beings.
(Report on the types of people)
Going back 30,000 years, we find that present-day humans have lived through three types of hominins:
The first type: Neanderthals
Homo sapiens lived about 200,000 years ago, at the same time Neanderthals lived in Europe and Western Asia in peace, despite that, Neanderthals became extinct and we survived.
Neanderthals were very similar to us, except that their face was distinguished by wide frames and thick eyebrows, and they lived in many pockets of Europe for more than 300,000 years, and even 28,000 years ago. Fossil evidence indicates that the last few primitives clung to life and fought for survival in places like Gibraltar, bearing witness so far to their remains.
In 2016, four large caves of importance were discovered in the Gibraltar region, which revealed that Neanderthals had lived in small groups in the caves that they inhabited for more than 100,000 years, and a group of artifacts were found, including the tools they used, shells and animal remains.
The primitives lived on food and marine mammals, and researchers were able to determine this through the remains of caves, which indicated that they were hunting dolphins, for food, in addition to catching more than 120 species of birds with teeth marks indicating that they were eaten, some of which were birds of prey from Eagles and hawks also used their wings as clothing and head coverings.
Neanderthals lived in caves, which had a typical climate that was cool in summer and warm on cold winter nights. Caves were a convenient place to rest and hide from predators. But what's really interesting is that our DNA still contains the fingerprint of Neanderthals, which the researchers set at 20%.
The second type: Denisovans
This type of human lived in Asia, specifically in the valley of the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia, about 200,000 to 46,000 years ago, and excavations began in the Denisova Caves 40 years ago, but it did not occupy the forefront of news agencies until 2010, when scientists announced The DNA analysis of the fossil remains of the bones indicated that they belong to an unknown human species in the evolutionary tree, and here they called it: Denisovans, and considered it one of the siblings of Neanderthals.
In ancient stone caves, Denisovans lived side by side with Neanderthals, and some studies indicate that the two species mixed together, especially after the Neanderthals migrated to places inhabited by Denisovans, and they had to interbreed with each other. The life of this species was characterized by artefacts of bone and ivory.
Scientific research indicates that human evolution has resulted from cross-breeding processes between different types of humans; They discovered evidence of early humans, Denisovans, and Homo sapiens interbreeding; Which indicates mating and mixing between different species.
The third type: the hobbit
On the Indonesian island of Flores, a type of short human lived until 15,000 years ago. Scientists called them "Flores Man", while some likened them to the "Hobbit", a fictional race of short-stature hominins.
Flores is the most recent of the other human species that lived on Earth at the same time as modern humans, and their extinction was much later than other species. The hobbit was less than a meter tall and weighed no more than 25 kilograms. This species also had a small skull size, similar to that of a newborn chimpanzee.
Homo floresiensis lived on that Indonesian island completely isolated from the outside world, perhaps that is why it evolved against humans to become small in size. Despite this, some scholars have stated that the hobbit is not human as it was previously believed, and that the size of the skull and the devoid of the chin is completely different from the shape and size of the human skull, but this may be due to its evolution in a different way.
?Why did all human species become extinct except us
Until recently, we shared the planet with other early humans. Researcher John Shea, of Stony Brook University in the United States, points out that many types of humans may have lived side by side at one time, but our ancestors ate primarily plants more than animals. However, at that time, Europe suffered from climatic changes that forced the Neanderthals to migrate from areas of forests and trees, to the open savannah, which at that time was drier.
These conditions forced the first humans to become carnivores, but one problem remained, which is that the animals on which they were feeding, did not find plants to satisfy their hunger. This competition for food was primarily the cause of the extinction of some primitive human species.
(on the extinction of primitive species)
Despite these deadly conditions, some Neanderthals managed to survive climate change until 30,000 years ago; The researchers point out that the first humans who lived in that period were displaced by modern humans, after modern humans encroached on their natural habitat, causing the extinction of Neanderthals erectus.
As for the hobbit, most geological evidence indicates that Homo floresiensis became extinct as a result of a volcanic eruption that completely wiped out this species in its isolation within the Indonesian island. Denisovans survived, and scientists indicate that he has not yet discovered the reasons that led to his extinction due to the lack of scientific evidence.
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