Researchers find inner ear structure in 100K yr-old human skull

A new research has discovered an inner-ear formation in the 100,000-year-old early human skull, found 35 years ago in Northern China, which is similar to structure found in Neandertals.

Erik Trinkaus, PhD said that the discovery places into question a whole suite of scenarios of later Pleistocene human population dispersals and interconnections based on tracing isolated anatomical or genetic features in fragmentary fossils.

He further explained that this study showed that they can't rely on one anatomical feature or one piece of DNA as the basis for sweeping assumptions about the migrations of hominid species from one place to another.

The study also suggested that modern humans have emerged from a complex labyrinth of biology and peoples.

Trinkaus, along with Xiu-Jie Wu, Wu Liu and Song Xing of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, and Isabelle Crevecoeur of PACEA, Universite de Bordeaux are the first to offer compelling evidence for interbreeding and gene transfer between Neandertals and modern human ancestors.

The skull at the center of this study, known as Xujiayao 15, was found along with an assortment of other human teeth and bone fragments, all of which seemed to have characteristics typical of an early non-Neandertal form of late archaic humans.