Paper short abstract:

Recent fossil discoveries: two clavicles, a 9th rib, a femur, a humerus and partial calvaria from central Narmada valley sorting out into a 'large robust' and a 'short and stocky' type of middle to late Pleistocene hominin lineages, place India on the corridors of human evolution in South Asia.

Paper long abstract:

Narmada valley is known since 1830s for unique co-occurrences of Quaternary mega-terrestrial fauna and Lower Palaeolithic implements in stratified contexts. But, the anticipated human fossil discoveries could only be made relatively recently. First came a partial calvaria [Sonakia Rec. GSI 113, 1984] followed by two clavicles and a 9th rib [Sankhyan, JHE 32, 1997; Cur. Sci. 88, 2005] from Hathnora, and most recently a femur and a humerus from another site, Netankheri. Recent detailed study by the author showed existence of two types of hominins in Narmada Valley.

The calvaria and the two clavicles including the rib represent two distinct archaic hominin populations now supported by the femur and the humerus. The femur, found in the lower (U1) boulder conglomerate bed in association with mega terrestrial fauna and large Acheulian handaxes, exhibits a mosaic robust morphology of H. erectus and H. neanderthalensis, also seen in the calvaria debated between H. erectus or archaic Homo sapiens or H. heidelbergensis such that both likely come from one 'large-bodied' robust hominin, H. heidelbergensis. The humerus, found between middle and upper (U2/U3) boulder conglomerate beds, comes from pre-YTA (~75 kya) strata in association with typical Mode 3 and Mode 4 implements including several unique bone tools discovered for the first time. It represents a 'short and stocky' late archaic/early modern Homo sapiens hitherto unknown in South Asia indicating continuity of the 'small-bodied' hominins, also attested by >60 kya genomic signatures.

ANEK R. SANKHYAN: Siwalik Bhawan, Ward No. 5, Near IPH, Ghumarwin, Bilaspur -174021(H.P.), India.