New Human Species Discovered in the Philippines

The excavation site at Callao Cave, Luzon Island, Philippines.
(c) Callao Cave Archaeology Project

A new human relative?

A recent article featured on www.ancient-origins.net reports that researchers working in a cave in the Philippines claim to have found a new, previously unknown, species to add to human history. This hominin (any member of the group consisting of all modern and extinct humans and great apes - including gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans - and all their immediate ancestors) was probably less than four feet high and had some of the characteristics of modern people but also anatomical features from much earlier hominins. 

The latest in a series of finds of early humans in the Philippines was made by archaeologists as they were digging in the floor of Callao Cave on Luzon island. A team of experts, led by Professor Philip Piper, from the Australian National University, found several fossils unlike anything else in the world. The fossil remains included adult finger and toe bones, as well as teeth. The femur bone of a juvenile was also unearthed. The remains are estimated to be about 50,000 years old and date from a time when several human species co-existed on the planet.

Five upper teeth of a single individual provisionally named 'Homo luzonensis
(c) Callao Cave Archaeology Project

The height of the new humans was determined by the size of the tooth and the other bones although more evidence is required to confirm this. This newly discovered species may be related to Homo floresiensis found on the Indonesian island of Flores which was also under four feet in height. The new species of human had ‘long, curved fingers and toes’ suggesting that it was as comfortable scrambling up trees as walking upright. This previously unknown species has been provisionally named Homo luzonensis.

Humans Migrated ‘Out of Africa’ a Lot Earlier than Previously Thought

It is now known that modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago before migrating to other continents. In January 2018 a group of archaeologists from Tel Aviv University working at Mount Carmel, Israel discovered the upper jaw bone of a Homo sapiens in a layer of sediment with tools previously attributed to Neanderthals. This discovery pushed back the date for human migration out of Africa by about 40,000 years confirming the theory that there was more than one expansion phase with different groups leaving over a long period.

The Neanderthals thrived in Europe for around 300,000 years before modern humans arrived. Excavations in Ibex, Vanguard, and Gorham’s Caves in Gibraltar have revealed evidence of Neanderthal occupation dating to possibly as late as 28,000 years ago. This makes Gibraltar the most recent Neanderthal occupation site yet discovered. The ancestors of modern humans interbred with Neanderthals and another extinct line of humans known as the Denisovans. Modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans shared a common ancestor who lived roughly 600,000 years ago.

Humans and chimpanzees are very closely related and separated about 7.4 million years ago.  There is only a 1% difference between the chimpanzee genome and our own suggesting that we have a common ancestor. Homo sapiens represents the last of a long line of hominin races that once consisted of five different species spanning four continents.

Homo Sapiens Sophistication

Most human traits are found in lesser degrees in other species. Researchers point out that humans, compared to other apes, are highly social, primarily use culture to adapt to their environment, and are very skilled at language. These traits have allowed humans to be much more adaptable and resilient in the face of a changing environment. Other animals, including great apes and dolphins, have capacities for abstract thought and language skills but these abilities are especially pronounced in Homo Sapiens.

Thanks to new techniques, including advances in DNA analysis, it is now possible to learn more about extinct species of human than ever before. The evidence is pointing not to one unbroken chain of human ancestors but a rich family tree with several offshoots. Our family tree is now filled with not only direct ancestors like Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus but also cousins and distant relatives like Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Denisova.

Homo Heidelbergensis

Homo Heidelbergensis or Heidelberg man walked the earth about 600,000 years ago in Africa, parts of Asia, and Europe and is believed to be the direct ancestor of Neanderthals. They were using stone tipped spears to hunt large prey and may be the first species of homo to intentionally bury their dead.

Homo Denisova

One of the more recent discoveries of an extinct human species was made at the Denisova Cave in Siberia as recently as 2008. Advances in DNA analysis has made it possible to sequence the genome of Homo Denisova. Some people in Tibet have traces of Denisovan DNA in the same way that some Europeans have a minute percentage of Neanderthal DNA. In 2018, some ten years after the discovery of Homo Denisova, at the Denisova cave a small fragment of bone was positively identified as the direct offspring of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan. The female offspring, nicknamed ‘Denny’, had survived to approximately 13 years of age.

Skeleton of Neanderthal Child found at Roc de Marsal, Dordogne, France
(c) Musee National de Prehistoire

Neanderthals May Have Pioneered Cave Art

In 2018 scientists revealed the origins of some cave art in Spain was Neanderthal rather than human. The discovery supports the theory that Neanderthals and modern humans were not as different to one another as previously presumed. An international team of scientists dated the calcite (crystal) layer which had formed on top of the ancient artwork and concluded that the art must have been there beforehand and must be older than it. Results revealed the artwork predated the arrival of modern humans in the region by a minimum of 20,000 years.

Conclusion

Researchers in the Philippines claim to have found a new, previously unknown, species to add to human history. The remains are estimated to be about 50,000 years old and date from a time when several human species co-existed on the planet. This new species has been provisionally named Homo luzonensis and was probably less than four feet tall. This exciting discovery gives new meaning to the phrase ‘We are not alone’!
For more information please see:
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/new-human-species-0011725
https://www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins-science/11-mysterious-extinct-human-species-0011564

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGN2DvDYWgc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMf8pgXRMvs

Raising a glass to the Beaker People

Beaker Culture Diffusion
from Wikipedia

Introduction

A recent paper entitled The phylogenealogy of R-L21: four and a half millennia of expansion and redistribution by Dr Flood, a former Principal Research Scientist at The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, provides some interesting insights into population changes in Britain and Ireland over a period of 4,500 years. Dr Flood argues that it is likely that the L21 genetic mutation originated in the large Beaker colony in south-west Britain around 2,500 BC. From there, it was carried by sea into north-west France, Ireland, north-west Spain and the Middle Rhine, which today have a high incidence of L21, and into Northern England and Scotland.

Around 100 BC, a second major R-L21 expansion was initiated in Ireland and Scotland. Dr Flood suggests that this is consistent with a collapse in the population of Ireland, followed by a rapid expansion. It is thought that a severe weather event, famine and/or epidemic occurred around this time. Famine, plague and war tend to be closely associated. Ireland has suffered regular severe famines, as has Northern Europe more generally.

Ireland’s isolation meant that there were many diseases to which the Irish would not have acquired immunity. Examples of diseases that later devastated the New World include smallpox, influenza, typhoid, yellow fever and pertussis. Typically, these diseases wiped out 95% of newly exposed populations.

Genetic Change

Every movement of people throughout history has produced different challenges. The environment and the way that humans lived meant that the genetic code of different branches of human beings mutated. Within a population group those individuals with a certain mutation may have greater survival rates than those without. Those without the mutation would die at a faster rate and therefore the mutated gene spreads.

One reason many Africans are naturally resistant to malaria is because 33,000 years ago the genetic structure of the African population group changed (mutated). Because Europeans had already migrated out of Africa, they did not carry this mutation and therefore many are not resistant to malaria.

Reconstruction of Beaker Burial

Beaker People

When the Beaker culture extended to Britain and Ireland 4,500 years ago, it was brought by migrants who almost completely replaced the existing inhabitants within a few hundred years. The assumption that people today are directly descended from the people who always lived in that same area no longer stands. Human populations have been moving and mixing throughout history. These people have been credited with introducing metalworking to Britain and spreading the Indo-European language group.

In genetic terms, L21 is a major branch of the general Y-haplogroup R1b that has dominated Western Europe since the early Bronze Age. About 37 per cent of men in the British Isles are R-L21, and two-thirds of the Irish.

The Vikings

From about 793 AD Viking raiders from Scandinavia began to assault the coastline of the British Isles. The Vikings occupied most of the Scottish Isles and the Isle of Man initially and established large port settlements at York, Dublin and along the south and east coast of Ireland. These invaders took huge numbers of slaves to run their agricultural holdings, mostly from now overpopulated Ireland and Scotland. It is reported that in a single day, they took 1000 slaves from Dublin and their genetic inheritance is visible today. It is thought that about 90 per cent of Nordic L21 men may be descended from slaves taken in raids.

The Diaspora

From the 1840s, much of the population of Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall went abroad as economic refugees. About 10 million Irish have emigrated and today over 40 million North Americans claim Irish heritage. Following the Highland Clearances and the dissolution of the Clans around 1750, the Scots began to emigrate, and today around 50-million people identify as being of Scots or Scots-Irish heritage, even though the population of Scotland is only 5.3 million.

The dating of the L21 mutation to around 2,500 has been supported by the presence of Bell Beaker sites all over Britain and Ireland dating from before 2400 BC. For example, Cornwall has an abundance of Beaker sites including round barrows and cairns, henges, stone circles and stone cist graves. The Cornwall/Devon area was a major dissemination point for R-L21 and is likely to have had the first large settlements in Britain.

Dalriada Overkingdom

The situation in Scotland is complicated by an invasion of the west coast of Scotland by Irish Gaelic speakers who eventually seized power from the Picts and gave Scotland its rulers, its Gaelic language and its name. Dr Flood argues that the expansion of the mutation M222 in Scotland is the only clear example of a concerted move by the Ui Neill group into Scotland, establishing the Dalriada overkingdom of Argyll and Antrim.

Bottlenecks in our genetic history

A population ‘bottleneck’ occurred around 74,000 years ago when the volcano that produced Lake Toba in Indonesia erupted and ejected 2,800 cubic kilometres of volcanic ash. Sunlight was blocked out through the entire Southeast Asia, South Asian and Arabian Peninsula and ash formed a thick layer on the floor. Only 10,000 people are thought to have survived this cataclysmic event, and these are now known as our distant ancestors.

Example of Beaker Pottery

Conclusion

The genetic mutation known as L21 originated in the large Beaker colony in south-west Britain around 2,500 BC. The Beaker people expanded over a period of a few hundred years, creating widely separated colonies in north-west France, Ireland, north-west Spain, the Middle Rhine and into Northern England and Scotland. These people have been credited with introducing metalworking to Britain and spreading the Indo-European language group. The so-called Bell Beaker, which gave the culture its name, may even have been used to drink alcohol!

Around 100 BC, a second major R-L21 expansion was initiated in Ireland and Scotland. Later invaders of Britain such as the Belgae, Saxons and Normans had a British genetic mixture from the early Bronze Age. Researchers believe that the human genome has been subject to irregular pruning including considerable decreases in genetic diversity probably resulting from natural disasters, epidemics or warfare. Perhaps we should raise a glass to these early people – slainte!

For further information see:

https://www.academia.edu/24686284/The_phylogenealogy_of_R-L21_four_and_a_half_millennia_of_expansion_and_redistribution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWz7OJj5RP0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk7eKGhs_P0&t=53s