The world is introduced to Homo luzonensis – a news roundup

Big archaeology news from last week that has made news around the world as the announcement of a new identified human species from the Philippines, dubbed Homo luzonensis. The paper was published in Nature and it describes new bones discovered from the same stratigraphic later as the Callao Man, which was previously described as a diminutive human that lived in the Philippines 67,000 years ago. With the discovery of additional bones from at least three other individual, the team from France, the Philippines and Australia have enough data to describe it as a new species.

The discovery puts Philippine archaeology in the spotlight, with last year’s discovery of a fossil rhino with butcher marks dating more than 700,000 years old (see here and here). More excavations are being planned in Cagayan, and this discovery, along with the previous discovery of Homo floresiensis will put a lot of focus on human evolution and Southeast Asia’s role in it.

Here’s the link to the Nature paper, links to news articles below:

A new species of Homo from the Late Pleistocene of the Philippines
Nature, 568, pp. 181–186 (2019)

A hominin third metatarsal discovered in 2007 in Callao Cave (Northern Luzon, the Philippines) and dated to 67 thousand years ago provided the earliest direct evidence of a human presence in the Philippines. Analysis of this foot bone suggested that it belonged to the genus Homo, but to which species was unclear. Here we report the discovery of twelve additional hominin elements that represent at least three individuals that were found in the same stratigraphic layer of Callao Cave as the previously discovered metatarsal. These specimens display a combination of primitive and derived morphological features that is different from the combination of features found in other species in the genus Homo (including Homo floresiensis and Homo sapiens) and warrants their attribution to a new species, which we name Homo luzonensis. The presence of another and previously unknown hominin species east of the Wallace Line during the Late Pleistocene epoch underscores the importance of island Southeast Asia in the evolution of the genus Homo.

News articles:

• Homo luzonensis: New human species found in Philippines | BBC, 10 April 2019
• Unknown human relative discovered in Philippine cave | Nature.com, 10 April 2019
• These bones belong to a new species of human | Nature [Video], 10 April 2019
• New species of early human found in the Philippines | Australian National University, via Eureka Alert, 10 April 2019
• More hobbit-like hominids found in Philippine cave | Slashgear, 10 April 2019
• New species of early human found in the Philippines | Science Direct, 10 April 2019
• Another human species discovered in cave in Philippines | New York Daily News, 10 April 2019
• Photos: Newfound Ancient Human Relative Discovered in Philippines | LiveScience, 10 April 2019
• New Species of Ancient Human Discovered in Philippine Cave | Geek.com, 10 April 2019
• Bones from Philippines cave reveal new human cousin | Daily Mail, 10 April 2019
• Ancient Bones And Teeth Found In A Philippine Cave May Rewrite Human History | NPR, 10 April 2019
• New species of human discovered in a cave in the Philippines | New Scientists, 10 April 2019
• Previously Unknown Human Species Discovered in the Philippines | History Channel, 10 April 2019
• An Ancient Human Species Is Discovered in a Philippine Cave | New York Times, 10 April 2019
• Unknown Species of Tiny Ancient Human Discovered in Philippine Cave | Gizmodo, 10 April 2019
• New species of ancient human discovered in Philippines cave | The Guardian, 10 April 2019
• New species of ancient human discovered in the Philippines | National Geographic, 10 April 2019
• A New Species of Ancient Human Was Discovered in a Cave in the Philippines | Inverse, 10 April 2019
• New species of 4ft ancient human discovered in Philippines cave | The Independent, 10 April 2019
• Welcome to the family: dig finds new early human species | AFP, vis Bangkok Post 11 April 2019
• Meet the Filipino professor who led the discovery of a new human-linked species | CNN, 11 April 2019
• ‘Man who dug deeper’: UP professor leads discovery of ‘Homo luzonensis’ | Philippine Star, 11 April 2019
• How much evidence is enough to declare a new species of human? | The Conversation, 11 April 2019
• Tiny Human Species Discovered In The Philippines Could Change History | Tech Times, 11 April 2019
• Fossils of enigmatic extinct human species found in Callao Cave | Reuters via ABS-CBN news, 11 April 2019
• New species of human discovered in the Philippines | News.com.au, 11 April 2019
• Fossils of new human species discovered in Philippines cave | NBC News, 11 April 2019
• University of the Philippines-led international archaeology team discovers new human species Homo luzonensis in Callao Cave | Good News Pilipinas, 11 April 2019
• Philippine Fossils Add Surprising New Species to Human Family Tree | Scientific America ,11 April 2019
• New species of ancient human found in a Philippine cave | Mongabay, 12 April 2019
• Fossils Of Ancient Human Species Unearthed In The Philippines | Asian Scientist Magazine, 12 April 2019
• ‘Callao Man’ makes PH rock star in human history | Philippine Inquirer, 15 April 2019
• Newly found hobbit-like mystery species lived beside, mated with humans: Report | International Business Times, 21 April 2019