Identify a whole new human species that gave birth to us

The new human species Homo bodoensis roamed the Earth half a million years ago, the long-lost ancestor of the modern Homo sapiens family tree.

According to an international research team led by paleontologist Mirjana Roksandic from the University of Winnipeg (Canada), the new ancestral species lived in Africa during the mid-Pleistocene period (the Pleistocene, which was the previous period of the Quaternary). to which we belong).

Humans have just been identified as our direct ancestors - (Image: University of Winnipeg).

According to  SciTech Daily, the  new species "Homo bodoensis" is based on a reassessment of existing fossils from Africa and Eurasia during this time period. The fossils are attributed to Homo heidelbergensis or Homo rhodesiensis, but it is still controversial and there are conflicting studies.

Recently, DNA evidence has shown that some European fossils known as Homo heidelbergensis are in fact early Neanderthals . Similar events have been found in the fossils of some East Asians.

The unmistakable fossils are clearly similar and are always disputed as Homo heidelbergensis or Homo rhodesiensis. New analysis shows that all these remaining fossils belong to one species, Homo bodoensis.

The new name comes from the skull found at Bodo D'ar in Ethiopia's Awash River valley, which would have been used to describe most of the Pleistocene from Africa and southeastern Europe, to distinguish it from the Neanderthals. reside deep within the Eurasian continent.

According to  New Scientist,  Homo bodoensis has also been identified as the direct ancestor that later evolved into the last human being born on Earth up to this point: Homo sapiens, ie. modern.

Our species and contemporaneous humans such as Neanderthals and Denisovans are also "close relatives", which is why this direct ancestor was once confused with Neanderthals because of their many similarities. together.