Ancient tooth reveals important details about hominid species

[FfFfFfFF 58,060]

A nearly million-year-old tooth is giving scientists new insights into the murky history of human origins. Researchers have analyzed dental enamel from the tooth of a mysterious human ancestor known as Homo antecessor, and their findings help provide some clarity regarding the longstanding mystery of where our species came from.

Homo antecessor remains were discovered only fairly recently, in caves in Spain’s Atapuerca Mountains. Beginning in the mid-1990s, anthropologists found the remains of six individuals, along with stone tools and animal bones. The finds were dated to at least 800,000 years old. Interestingly H. antecessor had an intriguing mix of ancient and modern facial characteristics.

While H. antecessor’s DNA could not have survived, some of their proteins have. By scraping enamel from a tooth belonging to one of the ancient humans, scientists are able to examine the unique sequences of amino acids that made up the proteins in their bodies. Not only do those proteins serve as a fingerprint for the species, they also give insights into H. antecessor’s biology.

The discovery is also intriguing because of H. antecessor’s modern-like facial characteristics. For example, their cheekbones, which looked quite similar to those of modern-day humans, Welker says. This could imply that there must be other hominin fossils out there that also have more modern-like faces.

Source: https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/an-ancient-tooth-is-revealing-more-about-our-human-ancestors

[GypsyBabe 22,836]

As an anthropologist, I love seeing threads like this.