An international group of archaeologists have discovered a missing piece in the story of human evolution.
Excavations at the Israeli site of Nesher Ramla have recovered a skull that may represent a late-surviving example of a distinct Homo population, which lived in and around modern-day Israel from about 420,000 to 120,000 years ago.
Aerial view of the Nesher Ramla sinkhole. The site of Nesher Ramla during excavation. (Credit: Yossi Zaidner)
As researchers Israel Hershkovitz, Yossi Zaidner and colleagues detail in two companion studies published in Science last month, this archaic human community traded both their culture and genes with nearby Homo sapiens groups for many thousands of years.
