New Hominin species uncovered in the Philippines

[Miocene_Mason]

I don’t think anyone has posted this yet, but for those interested:

 

The remains known as “Callao Man” and a few other fragments from a cave in Luzon, Philippines, have been described and places into the new species Homo luzonensis, a designation that is sure to cause a stir in the paleoanthropological community. It is based on very few and very fragmentary remains, and is rather young at around 50,000-67,000 years old. 

 

One hopes more remains (maybe a skull) will be found in future excavations so that scientists can get a more complete picture of what we are dealing with. DNA extraction attempts have thus far failed. 

 

In any event, surely a great site which will be intensely researched and our understanding of late non-human hominins. 

 

For more:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/science/2019/04/new-species-ancient-human-discovered-luzon-philippines-homo-luzonensis

[Macrophyseter]

Hello close brother, and welcome to the world of science from California 

[Ludwigia]

Very interesting. Particularly this statement stood out for me:

" Lead study author Florent Détroit, a lecturer at France's National Museum of Natural History, adds that “species” are human-made categories that aim to clarify evolutionary history, not necessarily hard-and-fast biological realities. "

 

[Miocene_Mason]

On 4/18/2019 at 3:24 AM, Ludwigia said:

Very interesting. Particularly this statement stood out for me:

" Lead study author Florent Détroit, a lecturer at France's National Museum of Natural History, adds that “species” are human-made categories that aim to clarify evolutionary history, not necessarily hard-and-fast biological realities. "

 

Détroit makes a very good point, indeed. However, I don’t think that will save H. luzonensis from a massive amount of scrutiny in the coming months.