New research, led by a Winnipeg paleoanthropologist, has resulted in the naming of a species of early humans.
The name of the human ancestor is “homo bodoensis,” which is a precursor to modern humans that lack our brain size. The homo bodoensis lived in Africa about half a million years ago.
She noted the research looked at the distribution of primitive traits, inherited from distant ancestors; shared derived traits that appeared by mutation in the most recent ancestors; and specific traits that make Neanderthals. “This makes Africa the best candidate for development of modern human species. This Middle Pleistocene species is different from modern humans because the shape of the brain is not yet the derived shape of the human brain.”“It provides us with the pool of variation that actually can lead to modern human variation,” Roksandic said.