An entirely new extinct species of human ancestors have been discovered by scientists in a cave in the Philippines. They are being termed as Homo luzonensis as the remains were found on the Filipino island of Luzon. They are a mixture of both older and more recent types of human when it comes to physical features. The most important idea being drawn from this is that early humans could have left Africa and reached South East Asia, an idea which was till date thought to be impossible.
More than three species of human ancestor lived in these parts. They could include Homo floresiensis or the ‘Hobbit’ people. They were found on the island of Flores in Indonesia in about 50,000 years ago.
“After the remarkable finds of the diminutive Homo floresiensis were published in 2004, I said that the experiment in human evolution conducted on Flores could have been repeated on many of the other islands in the region… That speculation has seemingly been confirmed on the island of Luzon… nearly 3,000km away,” said Professor Chris Stringer, from the National History Museum.
Thirteen remains between 67,000 and 50,000 years old have discovered in the Callao Cave. Well, in the Callao Cave they found thirteen remains between 67,000 and 50,000 years old. The remains found included teeth, bones from hands and feet, and something similar to leg bone.
From these, it is evident that Homo luzonensis were similar to us and some other upright walking apes called australopithecines that were lived in Africa several million years ago. The curved featured of the toe and fingers show that they did a lot of climbing.
But if they really left Africa to reach Asia, this could alter the current scientific account. It is thought that Homo erectus left Africa first about 1.9 m years ago. The most shocking part is that Luzon is only accessible from the sea.
