In a cave in the North of the Philippine island of Luzon have discovered paleoanthropological point of view a previously unknown species of human. Twelve years ago, was found in the Callao cave, the first human bones, a delicate pastern bone, the 67’000 years old. This had already caused a stir, but a single bone was still too little information. In the case of further excavation in the same layer of the earth, international researchers joined the team in the year 2015 on the other foot and hand bones, a Fragment of a thigh bone and several teeth, a total of twelve parts of three individuals.
After years of analysis, the researchers Florent Détroit is now in the scientific magazine “Nature” concluded that the human Remains belong to due to their characteristics, to a new human species. They named you after the place where Homo luzonensis.
The new early human species lived in front of around 50’000 years on the island, with the other species of the genus man as the Homo sapiens or the Neanderthal. The Homo luzonensis, about whose body and brain size due to the few finds, no statements are possible, had inhabited the island probably some time, as the tool finds in the nearby caves. The newly discovered Remains are of two adults and a juvenile.
teeth and bone have a total of a combination of characteristics in terms of Size, shape of teeth and curvature of the bone, which is unique. The molars in Homo luzonensis, for example, are surprisingly small, smaller even than that of Homo sapiens. In the case of the toe bone, the researchers found, however, Matches with the pre-schenart Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy). Overall, a confusing picture emerges, especially in the case of the teeth.
Isolated development
Similar to confusing the discovery of Homo floresiensis in 2003 in Indonesia on the island of Flores. The hobbit people had a strange mix of features of early humans and pre-human species. An explanation for the strange Mix of the two species of mankind could be that the two descendants of Homo-erectus-populations, which have developed hundreds of thousands of years on their respective Islands separated from each other.
Both Islands, Luzon and Flores, were even at a time when the sea level was 120 meters lower, just over the sea. On the Islands of the evolutionary history of a often beats other ways – a phenomenon is about the dwarf in a long period of Isolation, which affects humans and animals alike. The Homo luzonensis more accurately assess the need to dig the researchers will now continue to find a skull or jaw and to draw conclusions on the brain volume.
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 10.04.2019, 18:20 PM