Chennai: Scientists have said bones found in an Israeli quarry are from a branch of the human evolutionary tree and are 120,000 to 140,000 years old.
A team of anthropologists spent years analysing the fragments of a skull, lower jaw bone and tooth that were uncovered in Nesher Ramla in 2010, comparing them to hundreds of fossils around the world from different eras.
Researchers determined that the fossils likely came from a hominin group closely related to Neanderthals and sharing many of their features, such as the shape of the lower jaw.
They also believe that there are enough similarities to link this group to other populations found in prior cave excavations in Israel dating to around 400,000 years ago.
According to Tel Aviv University dental anthropologist Rachel Sarig, a co-author of the paper published in the journal Science, the teeth have some unique features that enable us to draw a line between these populations.
Tel Aviv University physical anthropologist Israel Hershkovitz, another co-author, said this group probably inhabited the region from around 400,000 to 100,000 years ago.
He said the remains found at Nesher Ramla are likely from some of the last survivors of a once very dominant group in the Middle East.