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Xiahe Mandible
The Xiahe mandible (, ) is a hominin fossil jaw (mandible) discovered in Baishiya Karst Cave, located on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in Xiahe County, Gansu, China. By the use of palaeoproteomic analysis, it is the first confirmed discovery of a Denisovan fossil outside of Denisova Cave, and the most complete confirmed Denisovan fossil. This fossil discovery shows that archaic hominins were present in a high-altitude, low-oxygen environment around 160,000 years ago. ''Discover'', '' Science News'' and ''Nova'' all named the discovery of the mandible in their lists of Top Science Stories of 2019. History The Xiahe mandible was discovered in 1980 in the Baishiya Karst Cave, located on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in Xiahe County, Gansu, China. It was found by a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was meditating in the cave. He passed the bone to , the sixth tulku, who recognized it as an important hominin fossil and gave it to geologist Dong Guangrong o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xiahe Mandible
The Xiahe mandible (, ) is a hominin fossil jaw (mandible) discovered in Baishiya Karst Cave, located on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in Xiahe County, Gansu, China. By the use of palaeoproteomic analysis, it is the first confirmed discovery of a Denisovan fossil outside of Denisova Cave, and the most complete confirmed Denisovan fossil. This fossil discovery shows that archaic hominins were present in a high-altitude, low-oxygen environment around 160,000 years ago. ''Discover'', '' Science News'' and ''Nova'' all named the discovery of the mandible in their lists of Top Science Stories of 2019. History The Xiahe mandible was discovered in 1980 in the Baishiya Karst Cave, located on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in Xiahe County, Gansu, China. It was found by a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was meditating in the cave. He passed the bone to , the sixth tulku, who recognized it as an important hominin fossil and gave it to geologist Dong Guangrong o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lanzhou University
Lanzhou University () is a major research university in Lanzhou, Gansu, China. Founded in 1909, it is one of the key universities under China's Ministry of Education (Double First Class University Plan, former Project 985 and Project 211). It is a Chinese state Class A Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It provides programs for undergraduate, graduate students on four campuses—three in Lanzhou city centre and one in Yuzhong County, about 30 miles away from the main campus. Total enrolment compromises of approximately 20,000 undergraduates, 10,572 graduates, 2,559 doctoral students, and about 700 registered international students from 64 countries and regions across 5 continents. Undergraduate students study at the Yuzhong campus. There are 6 National Bases for the Training of Researching and Teaching personnel for Fundamental Disciplines. The University operates an additional 35 institutes along with 1 national key Laboratory of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dali Man
Dali man () is the remains of a late ''Homo erectus'' or archaic ''Homo sapiens'' who lived in the late-mid Pleistocene epoch. The remains comprise a complete fossilized skull, which was discovered by Liu Shuntang in 1978 in Dali County, Shaanxi Province, China. Dating the skull is a matter of debate. While uranium-series dating of ox teeth from the same site in 1994 obtained a date of , it is unclear whether the hominid cranium and the ox teeth date from a similar era.P. BrowDali archaic ''Homo sapiens''University of New England, Australia (2002) A new analysis performed in 2017 used a variety of methods, arriving at an age estimate of about . The fossil is considered to be the most complete skull of that time period found in China. Access to Dali Man is restricted. The cranium is currently housed in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China. Characteristics of the skull The Dali cranium is interesting to modern anthropologists as i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hualong Cave
Hualong Cave () is a cave in Pangwang village in Dongzhi County, Anhui Province, China, and situated on the southern bank of Yangtze. It is located on the side of Meiyuan Hill. Palaeontological interest started in 2004 when a farmer accidentally found bones that were later identified as mammalian fossils. Excavations started in 2006 by paleontologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has yielded many stone tools and over 30 human fossils, and animal bones including those of ''Ailuropoda'', ''Arctonyx'', '' Bubalus'', ''Sinomegaceros'', ''Stegodon'', giant tapir, and giant pandas. The most notable fossils are that of a ''Homo erectus'' (dubbed Dongzhi Man) described in 2014, and that of a 300,000-year-old archaic human discovered in 2019. Stone tool Hualong Cave shows the lifestyle of humans in the Paleolithic Age. Bone tools were used for cutting animals but not for hunting. More than 100 stone tools have been discovered. These stone tools were made from siliceous rocks. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jinniushan
Jinniushan () is a Middle Pleistocene paleoanthropological site, dating to around 260,000 BP, most famous for its archaic hominin fossils. The site is located near Yingkou, Liaoning, China. Several new species of extinct birds were also discovered at the site. Jinniushan hominin The hominid fossils at Jinniushan all belong to one individual. Initially, the fossils were believed to have belonged to a male specimen, since the fossils were so big. Later analysis shows that the fossil remains actually come from a female specimen. Size The Jinniushan specimen's body mass is estimated to be around , making it the largest female specimen ever discovered in the fossil record. The next largest female specimen ever discovered, found at Grotte du Prince, early Late Pleistocene, from around 100,000 BP, has an estimated body mass of . Body size in ''Homo'' reached its maximum during the Middle Pleistocene, so the size of the Jinniushan specimen is not surprising, especially since the specim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homo Antecessor
''Homo antecessor'' (Latin "pioneer man") is an Extinction, extinct species of archaic human recorded in the Spanish Archaeological Site of Atapuerca, Sierra de Atapuerca, a productive archaeological site, from 1.2 to 0.8 million years ago during the Early Pleistocene. Populations of this species may have been present elsewhere in Western Europe, and were among the first to colonise that region of the world (hence, the name). The first fossils were found in the Gran Dolina cave in 1994, and the species was species description, formally described in 1997 as the last common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals, supplanting the more conventional ''Homo heidelbergensis, H. heidelbergensis'' in this position. ''H. antecessor'' has since been reinterpreted as an offshoot from the modern human line, although probably one branching off just before the modern human/Neanderthal split. Despite being so ancient, the face is unexpectedly similar to that of modern humans rather than othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Protein
Ancient proteins are the ancestors of modern proteins that survive as molecular fossils. Certain structural features of functional importance, particularly relating to metabolism and reproduction, are often conserved through Geologic time scale, geologic time. Early proteins consisted of simple amino acids, with more complicated amino acids being formed at a later stage through biosynthesis. Such late-arising amino acids included molecules like: histidine, phenylalanine, cysteine, methionine, tryptophan, and tyrosine. Ancient Enzyme, enzymatic proteins performed basic metabolic functions and required the presence of specific Cofactors and coenzymes, co-factors. The characteristics and ages of these proteins can be traced through comparisons of multiple genomes, the distribution of specific Protein folding, architectures, amino acid sequences, and the signatures of specific products caused by particular enzymatic activities. Alpha and beta proteins (Protein fold class, α/β) are consi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear DNA
Nuclear DNA (nDNA), or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid, is the DNA contained within each cell nucleus of a eukaryotic organism. It encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest. It adheres to Mendelian inheritance, with information coming from two parents, one male and one female—rather than matrilineally (through the mother) as in mitochondrial DNA. Structure Nuclear DNA is a nucleic acid, a polymeric biomolecule or biopolymer, found in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. Its structure is a double helix, with two strands wound around each other, a structure first described by Francis Crick and James D. Watson (1953) using data collected by Rosalind Franklin. Each strand is a long polymer chain of repeating nucleotides. Each nucleotide is composed of a five-carbon sugar, a phosphate group, and an organic base. Nucleotides are distinguished by their bases: purines, large bases that include adenine and guanine; and pyr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While the "causes of Neanderthal disappearance about 40,000 years ago remain highly contested," demographic factors such as small population size, inbreeding and genetic drift, are considered probable factors. Other scholars have proposed competitive replacement, assimilation into the modern human genome (bred into extinction), great climatic change, disease, or a combination of these factors. It is unclear when the line of Neanderthals split from that of modern humans; studies have produced various intervals ranging from 315,000 to more than 800,000 years ago. The date of divergence of Neanderthals from their ancestor ''H. heidelbergensis'' is also unclear. The oldest potential Neanderthal bones date to 430,000 years ago, but the classification ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denisovans
The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Denisovans are known from few physical remains and consequently, most of what is known about them comes from DNA evidence. No formal species name has been established pending more complete fossil material. The first identification of a Denisovan individual occurred in 2010, based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) extracted from a juvenile female finger bone excavated from the Siberian Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in 2008. Nuclear DNA indicates close affinities with Neanderthals. The cave was also periodically inhabited by Neanderthals, but it is unclear whether Neanderthals and Denisovans ever cohabited in the cave. Additional specimens from Denisova Cave were subsequently identified, as was a single specimen from the Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau. DNA evidence suggests they had dark skin, eyes, and hair, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Planck Institute For Evolutionary Anthropology
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (german: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Society network. Well-known scientists currently based at the institute include founding director Svante Pääbo and Johannes Krause (genetics), Christophe Boesch (primatology), Jean-Jacques Hublin (human evolution), Richard McElreath ( evolutionary ecology), and Russell Gray (linguistic and cultural evolution). Departments The institute comprises six departments, several Research Groups, and The Leipzig School of Human Origins. Currently, approximately 375 people are employed at the institute. The former department of Linguistics, which existed from 1998 to 2015, was closed in May 2015, upon the retirement of its director, Bernard Comrie. The former department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology operated from 1998 to 2018 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Jacques Hublin
Jean-Jacques Hublin (born 30 November 1953) is a French paleoanthropologist. He is a professor at the Max Planck Society, Leiden University and the University of Leipzig and the founder and director of the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He is best known for his work on the Pleistocene hominins, and on the Neandertals and early ''Homo sapiens'', in particular. Hublin is the president of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution. In 2019, the organization came under fire after Hublin was accused of both sexual and professional misconduct with younger researchers. Personal life and education Hublin lived in Algeria until his family fled the country in the last year of the independence war in 1961. He spent his teenage years living in the subsidized housing of the northern Parisian suburbs. He later trained as a geologist and paleontologist at the Pierre and Marie Curie University of Pari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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