The Middle Pleistocene brought about the emergence of modern humans in Africa some 300,000 years ago. But plenty else happened during the epoch, stretching from 774,000 to 129,000 years ago, and a new study aims to clarify things with the naming of a new species and direct ancestor of Homo sapiens: Homo bodoensis, which lived 500,000 to 700,000 years ago. Researchers haven't stumbled on a new fossil to warrant the proposed species, which, they write, is "not a true species in the strict biological sense," given strong evidence of interbreeding. Rather, they hope to initiate a reshuffling of existing fossils from this period.
All fossils proposed to come from H. bodoensis are now assigned to two "poorly defined and variably understood" species, H. heidelbergensis and H. rhodesiensis, according to the study published in Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews. As Live Science reports, the H. rhodesiensis label was never widely accepted, partly because of its link to British imperialist Cecil Rhodes (he founded Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe and Zambia, from which the species takes its name), whereas many different fossils were lumped under H. heidelbergensis—a "one size fits all species," co-lead author Mirjana Roksandic, an anthropologist at the University of Winnipeg, tells Gizmodo.
DNA has confirmed most H. heidelbergensis fossils from Europe actually come from early Neanderthals, says Roksandic. She adds many H. heidelbergensis fossils from east Asia "likely represent a different lineage altogether." But other H. heidelbergensis fossils—particularly those found in the eastern Mediterranean as well as a 600,000-year-old skull found in 1976 in Bodo D'ar, Ethiopia, for which H. bodoensis is named—could be part of the new species. The team also proposes transferring almost all H. rhodesiensis fossils to the new category—approved by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature—with a few added to H. sapiens. (More early humans stories.)
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