Hannah Devlin: New species of ancient human discovered in Philippines cave
Homo
luzonensis fossils
found in Luzon island cave, dating back up to 67,000 years
World's 'oldest figurative painting' discovered in Borneo cave
A new species of
ancient human, thought to have been under 4ft tall and adapted to climbing
trees, has been discovered in the Philippines, providing
a twist in the story of human evolution.
The specimen,
named Homo luzonensis, was excavated from Callao cave on Luzon
island in the northern Philippines and has been dated to 50,000-67,000 years
ago – when our own ancestors and the Neanderthals were
spreading across Europe and into Asia.
Florent Détroit, of
the Natural History Museum in Paris and the paper’s first author, said the
discovery provided the latest challenge to the fairly straightforward prevalent
narrative of human evolution. It was once thought
that no humans left Africa until about 1.5 million years ago, when a
large-bodied ancient human called Homo erectus set off on a
dispersal that ultimately allowed it to occupy territory spanning Africa and
Spain, China and Indonesia.
Then, according to the
traditional narrative, after a few hundred-thousand years of not much
happening, our own ancestors dispersed from Africa about 50,000 years ago. “We now know that it
was a much more complex evolutionary history, with several distinct species
contemporaneous with Homo sapiens, interbreeding events,
extinctions,” said Détroit. “Homo luzonensis is one of those
species and we will [increasingly see] that a few thousand years back in
time, Homo sapiens was definitely not alone on Earth.”... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/10/new-species-of-ancient-human-homo-luzonensis-discovered-in-philippines-caveWorld's 'oldest figurative painting' discovered in Borneo cave
