Scientists said on Thursday they had discovered a new kind of early human after studying pieces of fossilised bone dug up at a site used by a cement plant in central Israel.

The fragments of a skull and a lower jaw with teeth were about 130,000 years old and could force a rethink of parts of the human family tree, the researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said.

Nesher Ramla Homo – named after the place southeast of Tel Aviv where it was found – may have lived alongside our species, Homo sapiens, for more than 100,000 years, and may have even interbred, according to the findings.

The early humans, who had very large teeth and no chin, may have also been ancestors of the Neanderthals, the study added, challenging the current thinking that our evolutionary cousins originated in Europe.

“The discovery of a new type of Homo is of great scientific importance,” said Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University, one of the leaders of the team that analysed the remains.

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