LONG-LOST COUSIN OF MODERN HUMANS FOUND.

The human family tree has acquired a new branch with the unearthing of a previously unknown species of human that lived on an island in today's Philippines some 50,000 years ago. The species, dubbed Homo Luzonensis after the island of Luzon where its remains were found, is not a direct ancestor of modern day humans, but rather a distant ancient relative. But the discovery, published in 'Nature' adds to a growing body of evidence that human evolution is not as linear as was once thought. It also raises questions, including how the species arrived on the island and who its ancestors were. The 'remarkable discovery...will no doubt ignite plenty of scientific debate', said Matthew Tocheri, Professor of Anthropology at Canada's Lakehead University. Researchers from France, the Philippines and Australia found the remains in Callo Cave, where a bone dating back 67,000 years was discovered in 2007. It was not initially clear which type of early human that bone came from, but recently they discovered seven teeth and five different bones at the site, dating back between 50,000 and 67,000 years. With more evidence to examine, from at least three individuals, they were able to build the case that the remains came from a previously unknown type of human.  
"From the beginning, we realised the unusual characteristics of these fossils", Florent Detroit, who co-led the study. "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", added Detroit. In particular, the teeth they found had a surprising combination of elements from different early humans. "It's a mixture that we haven't seen in other species", said Detroit. But the discovery raises many questions, including how Homo Luzonensis got to the island, which researchers say has always required "a substantial sea crossing" to reach from the mainland. Researchers are also as yet unsure which of the more ancient human precursors recorded in the fossil record in Africa Homo Luzonensis may be descended from. For a long time, theories of evolution centred around the idea that an early species called Homo Erectusbegan dispersing from Africa between 1.5 million to two million years ago. Under that theory, other early humans stayed put in Africa, where they eventually died out. But the theory has been challenged by discoveries in recent years of species that do not appear to be descended from Homo Erectus, including Homo Floresiensis, the so-called 'hobbit' found in 2004 on an Indonesian island. 
The discovery of Homo Luzonensis "provides yet more evidence that hints that Homo Erectus might not have been the only globe-trotting early Hominin", wrote Tocheri. Intriguingly, both the early humans share some characteristics with very old human species recorded in Africa. In particular, the newly discovered Homo Luzonensis has a foot bone that is unlike any of its known human contemporaries but closely resembles those of a human species known to have existed in Africa around two to three million years earlier. Detroit said for now researchers believe Homo Luzonensis most likely walked upright rather than lived in trees. The remains also suggest that the species was small, standing less than four-feet tall.
[Courtesy: The Times of India dated 12th April, 2019 (Friday)]
-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy (24th June, 2019 Monday-
---------------------------------------------------------

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VIEWS OF MANU AND KAUTILYA ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

The state performed its duty of protection of society and the individual through coercive enforcement of the standards of justice based on the concept of ' Dharma '. From the Vedic period onward, the perennial attitude of Indian culture had been justice and righteousness. Justice, in the Indian context, was a human expression of a wider universal principle of nature and if men were entirely true to nature, their actions would be spontaneously just. Men experienced Justice, in the sense of a distributive equity, as moral justice, social justice, and legal justice. Each of these forms of justice was viewed as a particularisation of the general principle of the universe seen as a total organism. Impartial administration of justice was always regarded as one of the main duties of the King and he was considered to be the fountain of justice. The ethical code of society and its cultural standards were inter-related. The cultural maturity and social amicability and even their det...
Read more

ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER TOMBS IN EGYPT DATING BACK 2,000 YEARS.

Egypt's antiquities ministry said on 14th August, 2017 (Tuesday) that archaeologists have discovered three tombs dating more than 2,000 years, from the Ptolemaic Period. The discovery was made in the Nile valley province of Minya south of Cairo, in an area known as al-kamin al-Sahrawi. The unearthed sarcophagi and clay fragments suggest that the area was a large necropolis from sometime between the 27th Dynasty and the Greco-Roman period. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
Read more

ANCIENT INDIA'S LINKS TO TODAY.

You may not have heard of Shu-ilishu but he is a man of great significance. He reaches out to us from almost 4,300 years ago, through a small Akkadian cylinder seal now housed at the Louvre Museum in Paris. On the seal, you will find an image of him talking to two men. The inscription describes Shu-ilishu as the interpreter of the Meluhhan language. 'Meluha' was, in all probability, the term used by ancient Mesopotamians for the Indus Valley region, and the presence of an oficial 'interpreter' there indicates just how important the steady flow of good from the Indian sub-continent was.  Precious and vibrant lapis lazuli stones, carnelian beads, wood and even dogs would go across via old trade routes and ports like Lothal (in modern-day Gujarat) to Akkad, capital of the Akkadian Empire (03rd millennium BCE) and now in modern-day Iraq. There are also references to a settlement of Meluhhans in the city of Guabba in Sumer, in Mesopotamia.  The story of Shi-ilishu and ...
Read more