Human evolution; a new hominin found this year (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, December 13, 2019, 23:48 (1804 days ago) @ David Turell

Introducing Homo luzonensis:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/heres-what-2019-scientific-disco...

"Enter Homo luzonensis. In April a team led by Florent Détroit from the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, France, announced the discovery of fossil remains of at least two adults and one child of a new hominin species. They were found in Callao Cave on the island of Luzon in the Philippines and date to between 50,000 and 67,000 years old. This discovery was exciting not just because it’s a new species, but because of how it changes our earlier understanding of the first hominin migrations out of Africa and into Asia.

"Homo luzonensis was around at the same time as Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo floresiensis and our own species, Homo sapiens, but it displays a unique mosaic of physical characteristics unlike any of these other hominins. Some of its features look very ancient. For instance, the small size and simplified crowns of its molars and the 3-D shape and curvature of its finger and toe bones look most similar to australopiths, but other features of its teeth are more similar to Paranthropus, Homo erectus and even Homo sapiens.

"Since its hands and feet have features that are even more ancient than those of Homo erectus, does this mean that its ancestor is an even earlier hominin that migrated out of Africa? Only the discovery of more fossils will answer that question. Similarly, in 2004 the question of whether an even more ancient species than Homo erectus migrated out of Africa was raised after the discovery of Homo floresiensis. As this new species also has some anatomical features similar to early species of Homo, the question seems even less settled now with the discovery of another late-surviving island-dwelling species outside of Africa."

Comment: It looks like we will find more and more branches in the bush of hominins. To me there is an obvious push to get us evolved. The bald facts are all the other advanced apes did not move on like we did in this burst of activity.