researchers have found a previously unknown relative of the Homo sapiens discovered. The new species is the whole of human history on its head
The finger bones of a child has brought the human family tree, a new member who may have lived 30,000 years ago next to the Homo sapiens. The surprising German researchers discovered that the bones discovered in a cave in Siberia is almost certainly to a new, previously unknown human species. solved in the scientific community very excited, for the first time, the analysis of prehistoric DNA rewritten the history of man. Life was 30,000 years ago much more diverse than we previously thought.
went Until recently, paleontologists believe that in front of 40,000 and 25,000 years in the direct vicinity of the modern man, Homo neanderthalensis lived only.
field researchers discovered in 2003 on the Indonesian island of Flores, then a smaller relative of Homo sapiens, who lived only 13,000 years should. The "Hobbits" of Flores were great in about a meter and go back to Homo erectus - a precursor of modern humans who left Africa 1.9 million years ago. The size of the hobbits was very probably a direct result of their isolation.
And now the latest discovery, with the number of known, has doubled in front of 30,000 living humanoids within ten years to four. But not only the occupation of human evolution is changed. Excavation of human fossils were scientists go so far by three major waves of migration from Africa. The first footprint, which indicates a departure from the black continent, wurde vom Homo erectus hinterlassen (jenem Vorfahren, den wir mit dem Neandertaler, den Hobbits und der neuen Gattung der menschlichen Familie gemeinsam haben).
Trennung vor dem Exodus?
Die nächste Wanderung ging vor etwa 450.000 Jahren vom Neandertaler aus. Schließlich verließen vor etwa 60.000 Jahren die ersten modernen Menschen Afrika, um Eurasien und das darüber hinaus gehende Gebiet zu bevölkern – die Wesen also, von denen alle gegenwärtig auf der Erde lebenden Menschen abstammen. Die nun in Sibirien entdeckte menschliche Spezies passt aber zu keiner dieser drei Auswanderungswellen. Sie deutet stattdessen auf einen weiteren großen Exodus hin, der vor ungefähr einer Million Jahre stattfand.
„Ich glaube, wir können uns jetzt in nichts mehr sicher sein“, sagt Professor Terry Brown, ein Experte für frühgeschichtliche DNA an der Universität von Manchester. Man weiß, dass die Geschichte in Afrika beginnt und frühe Formen des Menschen sich dann auf den Weg machten. „Es gab keinen Grund für einen Humanoiden, in Afrika zu bleiben, wenn seine Population immer größer wird“, sagt Brown. „,Es ist ganz natürlich, dass er dann weiterzieht“ Die Wanderung aus Afrika heraus dürfte sich aber eher nach und nach vollzogen haben. Die frühen Menschen wanderten immer nur, wenn und so weit sie mussten.
Man weiß außerdem, that (with the exception of the hobbits) all human species have evolved before their exodus from Africa. That different shaped humanoid is, ultimately, probably due to geography: species can be divided, when groups are isolated from each other. Pairs of these groups are not enough developed to address their genetic material and varies depending on the respective habitats. Finally, the differences are so great that groups can no longer reproduce with each other, even if they try.
on the vast area populated by groups of Africa probably a few thousand people each different areas. It should hier zu vielfältigen Trennungen gekommen sein. Einige Gruppen brachten den Neandertaler hervor, einige den modernen Menschen. Andere wiederum entwickelten sich zu jener bislang unbekannten Gattung, von der man jetzt einen kleinen Finger in einer sibirischen Höhle fand.
Nur eine Art hat überlebt
Das Faszinierendste an dieser Entdeckung ist tatsächlich der Ort. Der Knochen wurde in einem Gebiet gefunden, in dem auch schon Überreste von Menschen und Neandertalern aus etwa der gleichen Epoche entdeckt wurden. Die Funde sprechen dafür, dass zwischen 40.000 bis 30.000 Jahren vor unserer Zeit alle drei Gattungen zugleich dort lebten. Haben sie sich jemals getroffen? Kamen sie miteinander klar oder bekämpften they? And why only survived the Homo sapiens? Do we have to apologize not only for perhaps Neanderthals but even with this newly discovered species?
"It is quite possible that there was a time when the immigrated to a genus in the area and others emigrated. You have to see that ten thousand years is a long time and it's quite possible that they have never met, "Brown said. "But it can also be that they have regular parties held each other and talk about the Neanderthals, who lived just around the corner." If they have lived together, it does not necessarily mean that this was in permanent conflict. Related species of other animals - big cats, for example - share areas without their neighbors while otherwise contrary to accommodate as cool indifference. Conflicts are only likely when there is competition for food, partners, or shelters. Apart from that, well, all three types of people hunted large mammals, including woolly mammoth and rhino may have heard, whose remains were found in the area.
And what will be called the four of us now? There is no formal name it yet, the discoverer Svante Pääbo and Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, which had taken a finger bone DNA and analyzed gave our recent ancestors once nicknamed "X-Woman." Due to the size of the finger they suspect that he belonged to a child between five and seven years. Whether this was a boy or a girl, is so far unclear. The nickname is only one reference to the analytical procedure: They studied DNA, which was enclosed in small organelles called mitochondria. These are inherited through the mother.
The new method is more puzzle solving
The material analyzed so far indicates an early human being, with a million years ago had a common ancestor to modern humans and Neanderthals. The researchers hope to decipher in the coming months, the complete genome of the essence. This step will provide more than knowledge, whether it be a new species or not. For one of the questions that the research on the origin of human life on, and which can be answered very well by genetics is whether coexisting human species have been propagated to each other. Detailed investigations of several genomes of Neanderthals have not produced striking evidence that between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals came to reproduce.
There are good reasons to suspect that even if our family were never in close personal contact to us We have played a role in their extinction. Is it a coincidence that the extinction of Neanderthals in Europe shortly after the arrival of Homo sapiens? Some scientists argue that climate change is responsible. Others consider it more likely that Homo sapiens, the Neanderthals in the fight for food and other essential resources has put out.
dies also Homo sapiens at some point?
The discovery of new species contributes to the elucidation of this question but to nothing. We now know only that two human species have become extinct - if not in our immediate presence, then at least in our area. Why should it fare to Homo sapiens different from the others? Is it conceivable that we will die someday? Or are we simply destined for the role of another branch of the human family tree, which paved the way for the next, more advanced version of human beings?
As for the extinction, we should be safer because we can control our environment to some extent. Some biologists believe that we have stopped looking to further expand our evolution, or has at least slowed down considerably. "A global disaster would wipe out most of mankind and only a few hundred thousand would be left, it was strongly likely to develop away from us," Brown said. Even slammed ein Asteroid auf die Erde, der voneinander isolierte Grüppchen von Menschen zurückließe, würden einige aussterben und andere die Entwicklungslinie des Menschen unter anderem Namen weiterführen.
Die Geschichte unseres Lernprozesses über die menschliche Evolution zeigt allerdings, dass alles, was wir heute glauben, innerhalb weniger Jahrzehnte auf den Kopf gestellt werden kann. Einst hielt man die Neandertaler für unsere Vorfahren. Bis sich herausstellte, dass sie zur selben Zeit wie der Homo sapiens lebten. Jetzt wissen wir, dass dies auch für diese vierte Gattung gilt.
Die gute Nachricht besteht darin, dass wir nun die Möglichkeit neuer Erkenntnisse auf Grundlage von DNA-Analysen haben. Die Sammlung of fossil human remains is patchy and fragmented. Many very tiny fragments were characterized over the decades as relics of Homo Sapin, Hom neanderthalensis or Homo erectus and are now in museums and laboratories around the world. Are perhaps including pieces of bone from other, previously unknown human species? "It is quite possible that there are a number of human ancestors from whom we have no idea. I mean five, six or seven kinds of people, "Brown said. "Now everything is possible."
Source: http://www.freitag.de/wissen/1013-mensch-neue-art
