Unknown 'anatomically modern human lineage' discovered from 40,000-year-old hip bone

A comparison of the fossil (upper left), a 2-Euro coin (upper right), a modern human bone (lower left) and a Neanderthal bone (lower right). (Image credit: Gicqueau, A. et al. Scientific Reports (2023); (CC-BY 4.0))

A hip-bone fossil found in France may have belonged to an early lineage of modern human Homo sapiens, one subtly different from present-day modern humans, a new study finds.

The fossil suggests that a group often thought of as solely Neanderthal in Europe may have consisted of Neanderthals and modern humans living together, the scientists noted.