An analysis of an ancient human ancestor skull found in Georgia has shown that, perhaps, different species of the genus Homo are actually one, according to an article published in the journal Science.
During excavations in Dmanisi (Georgia), David Lordkipanidze, director of the National Museum of Georgia, and his colleagues from different countries found a skull of a human ancestor about 1.8 million years old. The skull has an unusual structure: it combines a small cranium, in which a brain of no more than 546 cubic centimeters could develop, an elongated face and large teeth. A brain of this volume could still belong to Australopithecus, but other features of the structure of the skull make it necessary to attribute its former owner to the genus Homo, although it is not clear to which of its species.
Over the past 20 years, Lordkipanidze and his colleagues have found skulls and bones of five human ancestors in Dmanisi, along with the bones of animals, including saber-toothed cats and the European cheetah. The remains of all five individuals were found in burrows where they were supposedly dragged by predators. Scientists believe that the holes remained open for about two centuries, after which they were filled up.
If these remains were found in different places, they would most likely be attributed to different species of the genus Homo, scientists suggest.
"(The finds from Dmanisi) look very different, so it would be tempting to classify them as different species. But we know that these individuals lived in the same place and at the same geological time, so they could, in principle, represent one population of one species, "explained one of the authors of the article, Christoph Zollikofer.
After analyzing the skulls using computer methods, scientists found that in fact there is no more variation between them than between different people or chimpanzees, and most likely the differences are mainly related to the different sex and age of their former owners - an old man, two adult men, a young women and teenager. The scientist believes that all individuals found belong to the same species, possibly Homo erectus.
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