They discover a new human species in the Philippines: "Homo luzonensis"

A group of paleoanthropologists discovered in the Callao Cave in the Philippines, twelve bones and teeth that, according to the discoverers, would constitute an important step in the discipline: it is a new human species baptized Homo Luzonensis and that he lived at least 67,000 years ago on the island of Luzon.

These fossils provide evidence of the existence of a new species of hominid that lived on the island of Luzon at the end of the Pleistocene, more than 50 000 years ago.

In the same stratigraphic layer of Callao, experts Florent Detroit, Armand Mijares, Philip Piper and a group of colleagues from the French museum have discovered twelve other bones and teeth of at least three individuals.

According to the research team, the new specimens had remarkable features such as premolars, visibly different from those found in other hominids, such as Homo Floresiensis, another hominid from the islands of Asia. Southeast.

The discovery would amount to adding to the historical list of five members of the genus Homo who inhabited the Earth (Neanderthals, Denisovans, Hobbits de Flores, erectus and sapiens), a new species. "This new discovery has touched me," he said. National Geographic Yousuke Kaifu, paleoanthropologist at the Tokyo National Museum.

"It also highlights the remarkable diversity of archaic (primitive) hominids that were once present in Asia, somehow exceeding my expectations," Kaifu added.

The fossils contain "very primitive elements or characters similar to those of the Australopithecus and others, modern, close to those of Homo sapiens", explains Florent Detroit, paleoanthropologist at the Museum of the Male in Paris and lead author of the study.

This Homo luzonensis "was probably small, judging by the size of its teeth" although "it is not a sufficient argument," says the researcher.

Homo luzonensis, which is not a direct ancestor of modern man, would be a similar and contemporary species of Homo sapiens, but with a number of primitive characteristics. Two of the discovered fossils have been badyzed with the Uranium Series dating method and date from 50,000 years ago and 67,000 years ago respectively.

News in progress being updated.