Homo luzonensis

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Homo luzonensis
Temporal occurrence
Young Pleistocene
0.066 million years
Locations

Callao Cave ( Cagayan Province , Philippines )

Systematics
Human (Hominoidea)
Apes (Hominidae)
Homininae
Hominini
homo
Homo luzonensis
Scientific name
Homo luzonensis
Détroit et al., 2019

Homo luzonensis is an extinct species in the genus Homo . The species wasintroduced into the literaturein 2019 using fossils from the Callao Cave ( Philippines ) by a working group led by Florent Détroit . The first description of the species is based on a total of 13 isolated tooth and bone finds that were recovered from the cave in 2007, 2011 and 2015. These finds are as old as the evidence of Homo floresiensis from the Indonesian island of Flores .

Naming

The name of the genus Homo is derived from the Latin homo [ ˈhɔmoː ], which means 'human'. The epithet luzonensis refers to the location of the type specimen in the Callao Cave in the north of the Philippine island of Luzon . Homo luzonensis therefore means "man from Luzon".

Initial description

As a holotype of the species Homo luzonensis , five associated, but individually found molars from a right upper jaw were named in the first description , the fossils with the archive number CCH6a to CCH6e; These are the finds from August 24, 2011: three molars (M3 to M1) and two premolars . Seven other finds known up until the beginning of 2018 were identified as paratypes : a right 3rd metatarsal (CCH1), two finger bones (CCH2 and CCH5), two toe bones (CCH3 and CCH4), a left upper premolar (CCH8) and a right 3rd. Molar (CCH9). In the first description, reference was only made to the 13th fossil as a supplement, to the approx. 15 cm long fragment of the thigh bone of a child, which has broken in two parts and both ends (joint areas) are missing. According to the analyzes, the finds come from at least three individuals, from two adults and one child.

All teeth are unusually small compared to most people living today. The severity of the cusps and the contact points of dentin and enamel differ according to the first description of both Homo sapiens and of Homo neanderthalensis and the Asian Homo erectus . The middle finger bone (CCH2) is relatively long and narrow and in this respect resembles the texture of Homo sapiens , but it is curved - similar to Australopithecus and Homo floresiensis . The distal phalanx (CCH5) also has characteristics that are most closely related to Australopithecus . Finally, the bones of the toes also deviate from the blueprint of the early African and European Homo sapiens , Homo naledi , Homo neanderthalensis and Homo floresiensis and have - not least because they are also curved - in common with Australopithecus .

The authors of the first description explain that curved finger and foot bones in Australopithecus are regularly interpreted as a result of frequent climbing on trees or swinging from branch to branch ( suspensory locomotion ) - despite a two-legged upright locomotion on the ground - or that it occurs with they are about retained, original characteristics . Due to the only few bones found so far, a decision on the way of locomotion in Homo luzonensis and their way of life is not possible.

In an article accompanying the first description in the journal Nature , the first author, Florent Détroit, is quoted with the assumption that the individuals of Homo luzonensis might have had a height similar to that of the Negritos living on Luzon today : the men on average 151 cm, the women in Diameter 142 cm. Détroit also suspects that the ancestors of Homo luzonensis can be ascribed to the homo erectus .

discovery

On May 5, 2007, a team of researchers from the Philippines, France and Australia discovered a small 3rd metatarsal bone in the course of excavations in the Callao Cave , for which an age of 66,700 ± 1,000 years with the help of uranium-thorium dating was determined. Both the morphological features and the size of the fossil unequivocally identified it as belonging to the genus Homo , which also meant that this find was the earliest evidence of the presence of the genus Homo in the Philippines. In the scientific description of the metatarsal bone published in 2010 , it was attributed to a short individual of anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) due to its characteristics , but it was also mentioned that its characteristics are within the range of variation of Homo habilis and Homo floresiensis . The dating and its assignment to anatomically modern humans meant that the bone find was the oldest evidence of the presence of Homo sapiens east of the Wallace line , which advanced the spread of humans in this region by more than 10,000 years and all previous archaeological and genetic ones Knowledge contradicted; the reliability of the dating was therefore initially controversial.

On August 21, 2011 in the same find layer u. a. two unusually small, medium-sized phalanges discovered and attributed to Homo sapiens in 2013 : of a finger and a toe . Three days after the phalanges, five fossil molars were also recovered, and on July 1, 2015, another tooth, a so-called wisdom tooth, was found near these fossils .

In April 2019, the teeth and bones found were attributed to an independent, presumably small species of the genus Homo , called Homo luzonensis . The fossils are kept in the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila . All attempts to extract DNA from the finds have so far been unsuccessful.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Florent Détroit et al .: A new species of Homo from the Late Pleistocene of the Philippines. In: Nature . Volume 568, 2019, pp. 181-186, doi: 10.1038 / s41586-019-1067-9 .
  2. ↑ a b c Unknown human relative discovered in Philippine cave. On: nature.com from April 10, 2019.
  3. ^ Armand Salvador Mijares, Florent Détroit et al .: New evidence for a 67,000-year-old human presence at Callao Cave, Luzon, Philippines. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 59, No. 1, 2010, pp. 123-132, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2010.04.008
  4. ↑ James F. O'Connell, Jim Allen, Martin AJ Williams et al .: When did Homo sapiens first reach Southeast Asia and Sahul? In: PNAS . Volume 115, No. 34, 2018, pp. 8482-8490, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1808385115 .
  5. ↑ Florent Détroit et al .: "Small Size" in the Philippine Human Fossil Record: Is it Meaningful for a Better Understanding of the Evolutionary History of the Negritos? In: Human Biology. Volume 85, No. 1–3, 2013, pp. 45-66, doi: 10.3378 / 027.085.0303