My Deep Ancestry Milieu and Cohabitation with Hominids

A Work In Progress by Herbert Holeman, PhD.

Notes Posted .

Summary

Both my maternal and paternal haplogroup ancestral clans date back to living in prehistoric Asia (China-Southeast Asia) and coexisted with hominids. My genome includes DNA from these extinct species of human creatures with whom they cohabitated. The ancient DNA I share with these hominids is 2.6% Neanderthal and 1.8% Denisovan.

Discussion

In exploring the origin and cultures of my deep genetic ancestors, I rely on my haplogroups. They are haplogroup B and haplogroup O. Both haplogroups came into being on the East Asia mainland of present day China between 30,000 - 40,000 years ago. Scientists suggest modern humans (Homo sapiens) arrived in China less than 50,000 years ago.

My early ancestors lived in communal clans in a Stone Age glacial environment with thick year-round ice sheets, frigid climate, and dwindling space for hunting and foraging. Wrapped in animal skin to keep warm in the cold environment, they sought shelter in the warmth of caves, staying near the cave's mouth which would be lighter for better vision. Where no caves existed, they built temporary shelters from branches, leaves, and animal skins.

Figure 20
Ice Age Milieu Asia Ice Age

They made crude tools and weapons from stone and bone, stone axes, and carved wooden spears for hunting and fishing, which they cooked over a fire. They also gathered edible plants, fruit, and collected eggs from bird nests. A single kill of a woolly mammoth would provide a clan with food for months.

Figure 21
Ice Age Art Sundaland

Likely, they lived among the first people in Asia to leave behind works of art. They used combinations of minerals, ochres, burned bone meal, and charcoal mixed into water, blood, animal fats, and tree saps to fetch humans, animals, and signs. They also carved small figurines from stones, clay, bones, and antlers.

Figure 22
Archaic Hunter-Gatherers Ice Age Hunter Gatherers

Arguably, as nomadic hunter-gatherers, with the glacial advance, they would have followed the path of their animals prey migrating southward. They would also come across other humans, aka hominids with whom they could interbreed. These hominids had been present in East Asia for over a million years.

Figure 23
Earliest Mainland Hominids in East Asia

These hominids include Homo erectus finds: xujiayao, Hebei and (Yuanmou Man) in Zhoukoudian, Beijing ( Peking Man) in Nihewan Basin, west of Beijing; the find at ( Yunxian, Hubei) and the find at Zhirendong, Guangxi.

Also, Homo longi, known as the ( Dragon Man) existed in Harbin, the northeast region of China. He was a male who died at least 146,000 years ago. at the site, Daoxian, Hunan).

Figure 23
Hominids - Homo Longi

Evidence in Dragon Man's skull suggest he is a Denisovan based on a close comparison with a Denisovan jawbone from Xiahe Cave on the Tibetan Plateau.

But, around the time anatomically modern humans arrived in East -Southeast Asia some 50,000 years ago, at least two other archaic species, Homo luzonensis and Homo floresiensis, were present.

Figure 24
Finding Homo luzonensis

Also, Neanderthals and Denisovans, had long interbred with Asians as noted in this video. Denisovans wandered Asia for hundreds of thousands of years and remained in existence as recently as the time of my ancestors. Moreover, other anatomically unique hominids, such as the Red Deer Cave dwellers, with their million years old archaic-like anatomy, lived as recent as ~11,000 years ago in the Hunan area, and are thought to have possibly mated with modern humans and Denisovans.

"Humans are more closely related to Neanderthals and Denisovans than to any living primate. In my case, the hominid DNA in my genome of 2.647% Neanderthal and 1.8% Denisovan. So, likely it occured during the time of the ancestral origin of my founding haplogroups. This could have occured with the Archeuleans who existed in Asia (China Korea) as recently as 57,000 years ago. But definitely modern humans lived alongside and mated with the Neaderthals and Denisovans. This is evidenced by the following figures. They refer to the geographic discovery of hundred of archaic remains that have been DNA sequenced. Southeast Asia ranks high in the world population for amounts of shared archaic DNA from sequencing as shown in Figure 25. In fact, East Asians carry 20% more Neanderthal DNA than do Europeans.

Figure 25
Neanderthal-Denisovan Hominids
Neandertal-Denisovan image

In this video Dr. Janet Keso discusses genome sequencing of archaic and modern peoples.

Denisovan genes remain in modern East Asian populations and the Oceanic islands. Records show Denisovans interbred with early modern humans in Southeast Asia, particularly among the present day population of the Philippines.

In particular, Mike Luoma points out, "As a result of ancient interbreeding, people living today on islands of Southeast Asia and Oceania have genomes with up to 6 percent. Denisovan DNA." Yet, such DNA is relatively undetected elsewhere in the world.

The finds in the Philippines date 66,700 years ago and in Malaysia some 40,000 years ago. But, the National Geographic report of a study concludes that Denisovans co-existed and mixed with modern humans in Southeast Asia as recently as 15,000 years ago. As one study's co-author, Murray Cox, says of the Philippines, Malaysia, etc. "Suddenly, it's kind of crystalized that the center of diversity for archaic populations is in Islands Southeast Asia."

As for East-Southeast Asia generally, the full range of human remains provide knowledge that the hominid transitional forms leading to Homo sapiens existed for hundreds of thousands of years in Asia and reveal evidence of hominid genetic presence in modern humans (Homo sapiens).

Figure 26
Hominids DNA Shared
With Modern Humans Hominid DNA