A long-lost cousin of Homo sapiens has been discovered in a cave in the Philippines. The previously unknown species makes our understanding of evolution "messier, more complicated and a whole lot more interesting."
The human evolutionary tree gained a new family member on Wednesday when the discovery of a new early human species in Asia was announced in a study published in the journal Nature.
The new species, named Homo luzonensis after the island in the Philippines where it was found, has raised questions not only about how the early humans got to the island, but also about our understanding of our evolution.
What scientists found:
Fossil bones and teeth from at least three individuals were found in a cave on the island of Luzon in the Philippines between 2007 – 2015.
The bones are between 50,000 to 67,000-years-old.
Homo luzonensis had curved toe and finger bones, suggesting that climbing may have been important for them.
Researchers said, however, that they likely walked upright and didn't live in trees.
The remains suggest that the species was small, standing at less than 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall.
Callao Cave where the fossils were found on Luzon Island in the PhilippinesImage: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Callao Cave Archaeology Project
Evolution 'just got messier'
One of the study's authors, Florent Detroit, said that researchers realized the fossils were "unusual" from the beginning.
"We completed the comparisons and analyses, and it confirmed that this was something special, unlike any previously described species of hominins in the homo genus," Detroit, a paleoanthropologist at France's Musee de l'Homme, told news agency AFP.
Matthew Tocheri, an associate professor of anthropology at Canada's Lakehead University, said that the discovery will ignite "plenty of scientific debate" in the years to come.
"One thing can be said for certain," Tocheri wrote in a review of the study in Nature. "Our picture of hominin evolution in Asia ... just got even messier, more complicated and a whole lot more interesting."
The discovery has left scientists with numerous questions — including how Homo luzonensis got to the island, which would have required a significant sea crossing from the mainland.
Homo luzonensis also challenges some theories of evolution that center on the idea that an early species called Homo erectus began migrating around the world from Africa around 1.4 million to 2 million years ago.
Recent finds, however, have shown that Homo erectus may not have been the only globe-trotting early human to leave Africa. Researchers have yet to determine which of the early humans that Homo luzonensis is descended from.
A brief history of humankind
What distinguishes humans from animals? What is culture? Did Homo sapiens and Neanderthals co-exist at any time in history? A museum in Bonn answers these questions by revisiting 100,000 years of cultural history.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/A. Avital
From molecules to the nuclear bomb
Life and death are inseparable. The exhibition "A Brief History of Humankind" in Bonn's Bundeskunsthalle museum shows how, 13.8 billion years ago, molecules began to connect and turn into structured organisms. The above video still by US artist Bruce Conner shows what could spell the end of evolution: the nuclear bomb.
Image: B. Connor
A turning point: fire
Remains of the oldest Eurasian hearth dating back 780,000 years were discovered on the banks of the river Jordan. The ability to control fire was a turning point in evolutionary history that moved mankind to the top of the food chain. Fire gave light, kept people warm; people cooked over a fire and used it to make stone tools. It was a gathering place - a Stone Age TV.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/E. Posner
The birth of mankind
Homo sapiens had a fleeting chin, slanting forehead and a narrow brow ridge. The above skull is about 100,000 years old and was found in Israel, where Homo sapiens co-existed with Neanderthals for quite some time. All of the artifacts displayed in the Bonn exhibition are from Israel - and it's the first time they are on view in Europe.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem
Shaping culture
This Neanderthal skull was unearthed in the Amud Cave in Galilee. Anatomically, it is nothing like the skull of Homo sapiens: the chin is even more fleeting, the back of the head shows an indentation. These early humans not only fulfilled their basic needs, archaeologists also found they held burial rituals and other forms of culture.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/E. Posner
Togetherness
What makes us human? Family plays a huge role. Apart from historical objects, the exhibition also presents works by contemporary artists. US sculptor Charles Ray's 1993 "Family Romance" shows the fine line that connects family. In this sculpture, two parents hold their offspring's hands; however, the normalcy of a nuclear family is disrupted as both son and daughter are as tall as mom and dad.
Image: R. Charles
Gods made of stone
Humans started forming figurines depicting gods about 8,000 years ago, at a time when people were settling, planting fields and forming communities. They created goddesses they could pray to for good harvests and fertility. The phallic shape in the above photo could also symbolize a male god. Lines and etchings indicate abstract portraits.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/E. Posner
External memory aid
Unlike animals, humans can collect and write down knowledge. The Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia began to record information and numbers. This clay tablet was inscribed between 4,000 and 3,100 BC, paving the way for the complex memory systems needed to build cities and empires.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/E. Posner
Money instead of shells
This coin made of electrum, a gold and silver alloy, is the oldest-known coin in the world. Embossed with the picture of a grazing stag, it is from the seventh century BC. Of course, other forms of payment already existed: sea shells, pearls and promissory notes.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/Y. Hovav
Home sweet home
In the third century BC, Arad was a flourishing business center at the crossroads of two trade routes in the Middle East. For 350 years, it was a magnificent city of palaces, temples and homes. The above model shows a typical square one-room dwelling with a flat roof, dating back to between 3,000 to 2,650 BC.
Image: The Israel Museum Jerusalem/A. Hay
Two-faced progress
In 1912, Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity, a sensation and a scientific revolution. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem owns the original manuscript to E=mc². The mathematical formula embodies the two sides of progress: With it, mankind gained important insight into physics, but it also enabled the creation of the first nuclear bomb.
