What on Earth is HLD 6?

A new analysis of the Hualongdong skull has paleoanthropologists wondering if there may be a hidden hominin in the Middle/Late Pleistocene!

**In the original cut of this video, around 3:05, I said that the Middle Pleistocene no longer has Australopiths or Homo naledi. I have no idea what was going on in my brain, naledi persists unto ~250k as I have mentioned in many videos prior. Goofy mistake on my part, but it has been rectified to reflect correct dates. Thank you to those that emailed me!

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[robsquared]

*Smacks earth* You can fit so many skeletons in this thing.

[ericawalsh]

"The middle pleistocene: it's almost exclusively monkey wrenches."

I'd buy that tee-shirt.

[JacobT-]

You and your channel are awesome. No one else has explained this stuff to me as much and as well as you have. Thank you for your efforts and passion. I appreciate your fight against non/bad-science people and their nonsense too. Our species is stronger with your existence.

[mr.bulldops]

I resent the term "monkey wrench" in this context. The fossil record clearly shows Hominids have more recent common ancestors with box wrenches and crescent wrenches.

[jdlech]

In my experience, digging up distant relatives always produces more questions than answers. Like, why was my great great grandfather buried without his head? And what is it about my mother's side being buried with all these little silver balls?

[ArjanKop]

I’m glad you keep us updated. The rate of gaining knowledge is so incredible. Just 21 years ago, extracting DNA from a snail collected pre-WW2 was considered quite an accomplishment (I failed, yet no one laughed) and now there’s enough data to compare species that went extinct well before the last ice age.

[Transblucency]

How can this throw a monkey wrench into our understanding of hominid linesges when there are still monkey wrenches?

[gdprd]

Always good to see another paleoanthro video from Erika.

[AnnaRenee]

You’re such a great science communicator, I just started teaching a lab for the first time and it’s crazy how hard it is to convey the info in my head to people who haven’t heard that stuff before without sounding crazy

[CharlesPayet]

Too many “monkey wrenches, ” eh Erika? I see what you did there!

[grantpritchard]

How many videos on paleo-anthropology have me smiling like a giddy child? Just about all of yours have that effect on me. The ability to inject enthusiasm into, what can be, dry subjects is astonishing. Love all that you do. Keep it up!

[PZMyersBiology]

"more questions' = more job security for scientists.

[regex]

Nice reenactment of the "how can I hold all these" meme hahaha

[DeeDeeBaldwin]

Thanks for keeping this humanities nerd updated on cool science. :D

[dalmunae]

the armful of skulls at the beginning of the video was giggle inducing

[lorrygoth]

I love your work. It is so interesting learning about potential sister species and our ancestors.

[vforwombat]

"Now, i know what you're thinking..."

i was not thinking that.

[alisaurus]

Somebody with Photoshop skills needs to make a cereal box showing a bowl full of skulls, called Middle Pleistocene: OOPS! All Hominins!

[paulcontursi]

Another terrific video. Can't tell you how much I learn from your work!

[KianaWolf]

Oh good, I needed a fun palette cleanser sort of video right about now. Thank you for delivering, Erika!