Penghu 1
Penghu 1 is the scientific name for the preserved right half of a fossil lower jaw with two molars and two premolars , named after the Penghu Islands , a group of islands in the Taiwan Strait . The fossil is considered to be the first find of an archaic representative of the genus Homo in Taiwan .
The site of the lower jaw was under water: It was discovered, together with other fossils of the Penghu fauna of the Middle to Young Pleistocene , by a fisherman before 2008 at a distance of around 25 kilometers west of the coast of Taiwan through a fishing net from 60 to 120 Meters deep. The fisherman sold his find to an antique dealer, from whom a private individual bought it and handed it over to the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Taichung , where the lower jaw has been kept ever since.
The sea area in which the fossil was fished belonged to the Asian mainland because of the significantly lower sea level during the Ice Ages , especially for the two periods before 190.00 to 130,000 and 70,000 to 10,000 years ago. However, due to this finding situation, the age of the fossil could only be roughly narrowed down on the basis of its anatomical features: In its first scientific description in January 2015, it was therefore said that the lower jaw was most likely 190,000 to 10,000 years old, i.e. it came from one of these two Ice Age periods. An unequivocal assignment to one of the recognized species of the genus Homo was omitted in 2015, although a similarity with a find attributed to Homo erectus from the mainland Chinese province of Anhui (cf. Hexian yuanren yizhi ) and with Homo heidelbergensis was mentioned.
The unsatisfactory integration of the fossil into the genus Homo quickly led to the possibility that the lower jaw could belong to an independent species was also discussed. The controversial US geologist Mark McMenamin then suggested the designation "Homo tsaichangensis" in January 2015 - in the self-published Meanma Press .
In 2019, in connection with the description of the Xiahe lower jaw of a Denisova man discovered in the highlands of Tibet , it was noted that this lower jaw shares distinctive features with Penghu 1; Molar M2, for example, has three roots.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chun-Hsiang Chang et al .: The first archaic Homo from Taiwan. In: Nature Communications. Volume 6, Article No. 6037, 2015, doi: 10.1038 / ncomms7037
- ^ Penghu 1 - The First Archaic Homo from Taiwan. At: nmns.edu.tw , last accessed May 2, 2019
- ↑ Ancient Human Fossil Could Be New Primitive Species. On: livescience.com January 27, 2015
- ↑ Mark McMenamin : Homo tsaichangensis and Gigantopithecus. Meanma Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-893882-19-5
- ↑ Fahu Chen et al .: A late Middle Pleistocene Denisovan mandible from the Tibetan plateau. In: Nature. Volume 569, 2019, pp. 409-412, doi: 10.1038 / s41586-019-1139-x