Chinese anthropologists have discovered the remains of an ancient child who lived more than 100-200 thousand years ago, whose molars began to erupt. This is the oldest such find in East Asia. This is reported by Science News.
The petrified upper jaw of a 6.5-year-old child contains seven developing teeth. An examination of the internal structure using X-rays showed that the first molar erupted only a few months before death. Despite the fact that the roots of some teeth grew faster than in modern humans, the structure of the jaw as a whole is characteristic of living Homo sapiens.
Scientists determined that the child belonged to the East Asian population of ancient people with a relatively long life span and a long period of caring for and raising children. However, scientists still do not know what place the remains found in the north of China occupy in human evolution. The skeleton of a child, whose teeth resemble those of modern humans, is characterized by an unusual combination of anatomical features, including traits of Neanderthals and Homo erectus. Researchers believe that the child was a Denisovite.
Denisovsky man is a species or subspecies of extinct people, a few remains of which were first found in the galleries of the Denisovskaya cave in the Altai Territory.