Scientists find old bones - 6th August 2021

Scientists found some old bones in Israel. The bones are from a person. The bones are around 130,000 years old.

Dr Hila May is a scientist. She studied the bones. She found something surprising. The bones are different from people's bones today. The bones are from a different type of human.

Dr Hila May: "However, when we looked at these bones, we immediately saw that it's about a different type of human. It's not Homo sapien, Homo sapiens. The skull - the fragment of the skull - indicated a very low skull and flat, not like us that is rounded and tall, and the mandible had no chin. And we know the chin is something that only we have, the Homo sapiens. So, we immediately know, understood that we have something else. And the question was what it is."

The bones are similar to Neanderthal bones. Neanderthals were another type of human.

Dr Hila May: "But what, what we have found is that the "Nesher Ramla Homo type" is actually the population source of the Neanderthals and - which migrated from here to Europe."

Neanderthals all died thousands of years ago. Scientists think they were from Europe. But the scientists in Israel disagree. The new bones are giving the Israeli scientists new ideas. Now, the Israeli scientists think Neanderthals came from Israel.

Other scientists are not sure. They think there needs to be more research.