That leaves a couple of prospects: Denisovans, Homo heidelbergensis (the widespread ancestor of Neanderthals, Denisovans, and our species), or Homo erectus. All three species may have lived within the space on the time. However no one at Gantangqing left behind any handy, readily identifiable bones together with their wood instruments, stone instruments, and butchered animal bones (so thoughtless of them), making it laborious to pin down precisely which species these 300,000-year-old hunter-gatherers belonged to.
Homo erectus had been in Asia for greater than one million years by the point Gantangqing’s lakeshore was occupied; the oldest Homo erectus fossils in Asia are from Indonesia and date again 1.8 million years. Additionally they caught round till fairly just lately. In caves at a web site referred to as Zhoukoudian, outdoors Beijing in jap China, Homo erectus stays date to someday between 700,000 and 200,000 years in the past (there’s nonetheless lots of debate on precisely how outdated the positioning is).
All of that signifies that Homo erectus’ presence within the area overlaps the age of the wooden instruments at Gantangqing. And the stone instruments discovered close by are pretty easy cores and flakes that don’t rule out Homo erectus as their makers. Archaeologists haven’t unearthed proof of Homo erectus making or utilizing refined wood instruments like this, however for a species that managed to harness hearth and cross miles of ocean, it’s not too wild a hypothesis.
Then again, we all know that Denisovans had been in all probability within the space, too, or no less than not too far-off. A just lately recognized Denisovan cranium from Harbin, China, is 146,000 years outdated however bears a placing resemblance to different hominin skulls from websites throughout China, which vary from 300,000 to 200,000 years outdated. And making finely crafted wood instruments suits with every part we find out about Denisovan capabilities.
Then there’s Homo heidelbergensis, the direct ancestor of Denisovans. Actually, it’s slightly laborious to inform the place hominins cease being Homo heidelbergensis and begin being Denisovans, and even whether or not the excellence issues. It is an issue paleoanthropologists discuss with because the “muddle within the Center,” since each species date to the Center Pleistocene. So if Homo erectus and Denisovans are within the working, so is Homo heidelbergensis, by default.
And except somebody finds a telltale cranium close by or one other very related toolkit at a web site with telltale skulls to seek the advice of, we could not know for positive.
Science, 2023. DOI: 10.1126/science.adr8540 (About DOIs).
