At http://anthropology.net/2015/12/18/14000-year-old-bone-found-in-red-deer… … we learn that analysis of a 14000 year old femur bone and skulls bones found in 1989 at the Red Deer cave in Yunnan in SW China has revealed it looks like early Homo erectus and Homo habilis (way too archaic in morphology than the dating implies) which has upset the applecart as the survival of ancient humans over such a long period is simply not on the mainstream radar. It is being called a mystery.
Another part of the puzzle is that Neanderthals and Denisovans died out around 40,000 years ago – and they were much later in point of time than the humans represented by the bones in the Red Deer cave. How could such archaic humans have survived?
You can also read the story at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151217151544.htm … and the date, at the end of the Ice Age, is the strange bit – but it is worth taking onboard that the bones were found among other remains in the cave, particularly the femur which is being projected as archaic in structure. The human it belonged to may have had a disease of some kind that affected his bone structure. The study is published in the online journal PLOS ONE and the authors speculate that primitive humans survived in this part of the planet until very late.
At http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/fall-2015/article/the-mystery-of-re… … we have a fuller picture of the implications and the author here compares the find of early humans with the discovery of Homo floriensis, when indeed an early hominid appears to have lingered on much longer than mainstream allowed. This is the best link to go to as they lay it on the table, that early humans may have survived right up to the warm period prior to the Younger Dryas Boundary event. Can that really have happened? It would seem a difficult hypothesis in a uniformitarian model in which humans advanced slowly one stage at a time. In a more catastrophist scenario why not? Why is it assumed early forms of humanity died out when it is clear that apes survived in a variety of shapes and sizes right the way into the modern world. However, I expect a new study will show the femur bone is not ancient or has been displaced. If not mainstream will have to take onboard the idea that gradual advance of humans might be a false theory and there were other factors at work. We might also consider the possibility that catastrophic events, shall we say around 40,000 years ago, or possibly around 18,000 years ago, led to mutations in Homo erectus that led to a re-emergence of archaic features. Nothing is impossible.