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New Human Species Found In Philippines (bbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the family-tree dept.

Major Blud writes: A newly discovered extinct species of human has been found in the Philippines. It's been named Homo Luzonensis after the island of Luzon where it was found. Homo Erectus has long thought to have been the first member of our direct line to leave the African homeland -- around 1.9 million years ago. The physical features of Homo Luzonensis are a mixture of those found in very ancient human ancestors and in more recent people. This could mean primitive human relatives left Africa and made it all the way to South-East Asia, something not previously thought possible, since Luzon was only ever accessible by sea. The paper detailing the discovery has been published in the journal Nature.

3 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Only accessible by sea by jrumney · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now, Luzon is only accessible by sea, but there are plenty of theories around about lower sea-levels creating a landbridge through Indonesia and on to mainland Asia during the last ice age. Have these theories been conclusively disproven now, or is the article trying too hard to be sensational by implying that our pre-historic relatives were capable of navigating the oceans, while the homo sapiens who surplanted them only gained that skill much later in their history?

    1. Re:Only accessible by sea by turp182 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It was probably a combination of luck and an attempt to navigate. Maybe a land bridge. But long distance water crossings by nature aren't uncommon.

      The Galapagos Islands have penguins (which don't fly) and other land creatures (awesome lizards). They didn't navigate, they arrived via luck and accident.

      The Galapagos are over 1,300KM from the coast of Ecuador.

      --
      BlameBillCosby.com
  2. Re: They had trouble reproducing enough by Humbubba · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Listen buddy, misusing the comments section is NOT COOL. Weirdo.

    The comments section here does seem to be broken. Where's that healthy discourse of those really genuine geeks that brought me here in the first place - and kept me quiet? Where are those funny, insightful, interesting, and informative comments? Even tongue-in-cheek, obsidian, and blithe remarks would be welcome - if they were cool.

    Does /. have an exclusive 'cool geek' mode that I'm not privy to?

    And finally, just because there is a predilection for subversion these days: Are there forces out there trying to bring /. down? Maybe all this trolling is really part of a conspiracy from a {bevy, collection, gang, swarm, herd, army, murder} of Cambridge Analytica types who's goal is to remold our minds in time for the next election. It could even be Antigonish, the deep, dark state 'that isn't there', trying to manipulate the huddled masses yearning to be geek.