Pleistocene Hominin Phylogeny and the Potential to Identify ‘Super-Archaic’ Ancestry Using Dental Paleoproteins
Open Access DepositedThe evolutionary relationships of the Pleistocene hominins is a question of great interest and importance to understanding ourselves as Homo sapiens. Our understanding of the Pleistocene has become increasingly complex with increased investigation, making it challenging to identify the various hominin evolutionary relationships. However, this has not stopped novel and critical research from increasing our knowledge of this time, and its events. Here, I review a select few Pleistocene hominins, regarding their morphology and molecular data, spatiotemporal distribution, and systematic significance. This gives necessary background information of our current knowledge, and how it’s vital to understanding Pleistocene hominin evolution. I also perform my own phylogenetic analysis, including but not limited to the select Pleistocene hominin species, using dental paleoproteins. Specifically, I focus on a newly discovered ghost lineage dubbed the ‘Super-Archaic’ ancestry, hypothesized to most likely be Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, or a related taxa. I conclude that studies in Pleistocene hominin evolution would benefit from integrating molecular methods into official diagnoses of species and from improvements in those molecular methods. Additionally, Homo erectus and Homo antecessor are both outgroups to the Human-Neanderthal-Denisovan (HND) clade with Homo antecessor being more closely related to the HND clade than Homo erectus, suggesting Homo antecessor or related taxa are more likely to be the identity of the ‘Super-Archaic’ ancestry than Homo erectus.
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