Not just Homo Sapiens: There were 20+ human species that walked the Earth with the modern man; Where are they now?
Modern humans are often seen as the pinnacle of evolution and the only ones to have grown and developed over centuries. But in evolutionary terms, not long ago, we shared the planet with a number of other human species.
These ancient relatives were not just distant ancestors but our contemporaries, walking the Earth at the same time with our ancestors, even in the same places. They lived, adapted, created tools, even interacted and had children with us.
The picture of human evolution is not a straight line from primitive to modern but rather a tangled tree with many branches, where some of these branches ended in extinction and others merged.
But who are the other types of human species that walked along the ancestors of the Homo Sapiens, and why couldn't they survive till today?
A crowded family tree
For most of human history, Homo sapiens weren't alone. Fossil evidence shows that at least 21 species of early humans once roamed the Earth. These included well-known relatives like Neanderthals, as well as Homo Naledi and Homo Luzonensis, as suggested by recent fossil discoveries.
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Among these, some species lasted millions of years, while others were short-lived experiments in survival.
The modern Homo Sapiens didn't just follow other human species; they overlapped with them. Homo sapiens lived alongside Neanderthals and Denisovans, sometimes for thousands of years. In some regions, they shared regional tools and even genes. Interbreeding between Homo sapiens and these relatives left traces in the DNA, especially in populations today outside Africa.
These weren't short-lived events; they were complex interactions between intelligent, adaptable beings trying to survive a shifting world.
In fact, any of these species wasn't alone; they were part of a larger and connected human world.
The mystery of the missing species
Despite advances in archaeology and genetics, many early human species remain a mystery. Some are known only from a few bones or teeth, like the Denisovans, for example, whose full skeleton has not been found till date.
Instead, their story is put together from fragments and DNA. Scientists continue to debate how many species truly existed, since definitions of "species" can vary. Did they look different enough? Could they have kids together? These uncertainties mean the real number of human species might be far higher than 21.
Why could only one species make it to today?
The reasons aren't fully clear. It could be that they were more adaptable, better at cooperating, or just luckier. Climate change, competition for resources, and even disease may have wiped out other human species. Some were already disappearing when we arrived. Others may have blended into our gene pool through interbreeding. But there is one certainty that survival wasn't guaranteed; Homo Sapiens' today came at the cost of other lost human lineages.
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