TIL that the Red Deer Cave people were anatomically similar to Homo erectus (which lived approximately 1.5 million years ago) but their fossils, found in an isolated region in China, are only about 11,000 years old, suggesting archaic humans survived much longer than previously known

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Deer_Cave_people

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  2. Here’s a [fascinating article](https://theconversation.com/bone-suggests-red-deer-cave-people-a-mysterious-species-of-human-52437) by one of the scientists involved in studying these people.

    And from the wiki page, an excerpt detailing some of the proposed classification of the Red Deer Cave people:

    >Although the Red Deer Cave people represent an archaic human lineage, researchers have so far been reluctant to classify them as an otherwise unknown, or little-known, species.[1] In general, the remains from Red Deer Cave appear to be relatively similar to archaic hominid lineages such as Homo erectus and Homo habilis.[9] In particular, the RDC population is anatomically most similar in most of the characteristics to an individual known as KNM-ER 1481,[8] a member of H. erectus, who lived 1.89 million years ago in Africa.[12] In some respects, the remains have been described as exhibiting similarities to Australopithecus (i.e more than the genus Homo).[13] They might instead be the result of mating between Denisovans and anatomically modern humans (AMH),[2] or, alternatively an AMH population with unusual physiology.[1]

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