Scientists find evidence of new human species dating back 300,000 years

Researchers may have discovered evidence of a new human species called Homo juluensis which existed millions of years ago at the same time as homo sapiens, in what is modern-day China.

Homo juluensis are thought to have lived in eastern Asia around 300,000 years ago where they would've hunted wild horses in small groups, made stone tools and possibly processed animal hides for survival, according to experts.

Up to now, bone fragments found across the country have been attributed to Denisovans, a subspecies of archaic humans who lived across Asia approximately 285,000 to 25,000 years ago.

During analysis, scientists noted there were similarities between the two species, particularly in the jaws and teeth.

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Anthropologist, Christopher Bae from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and palaeontologist, Xiujie Wu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences believe that the Homo juluensis also includes the Denisovans but more research is needed to fully understand this relationship.

The purpose of this research is to fill in the gaps in our current knowledge of our ancient relatives who roamed the Earth millions of years ago.

"This study clarifies a hominin fossil record that has tended to include anything that cannot easily be assigned to Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens," Bae said.

"Although we started this project several years ago, we did not expect being able to propose a new hominin (human ancestor) species and then to be able to organize the hominin fossils from Asia into different groups.

This paper was published in the journal Nature Communications last month.

Elsewhere, early humans interbred with three different extinct species, scientists discover.

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