Philippine scientists have discovered evidence of a Hobbit-like humanoid that lived on the island of Luzon just 50,000 years ago.
Teeth and bones of the newly named Homo Luzonensis were discovered in Callao Cave, within the northern city of Peñablanca in Cagayan province.
The size of the bones suggests the newly discovered humans were lower than 4 feet tall, and it was the second diminutive species recently discovered in Southeast Asia.
The discovery challenges long-held theories about how early humans – of which Homo sapiens is the one living representative – spread the world over.
Scientists say the invention makes the image of early human existence “more chaotic and rather more interesting.”
Human varieties living 50,000 years ago included our own species, Homo sapiens, Neanderthals in Europe and western Asia, Denisovans in Siberia, and the diminutive Homo floresiensis discovered in Indonesia in 2004.
The latest discovery includes bones from not less than three individuals who lived within the late Pleistocene and was published within the journal Nature on Wednesday, April 10, 2019
“The discovery of Homo Luzonensis highlights the complexity of the evolution, spread and variety of the genus Homo outside Africa, and particularly on the islands of Southeast Asia, through the Pleistocene,” said the authors from the Museum of Natural History of Paris and the University of the Philippines.
All human species, each living and extinct, are believed to have originated in Africa. They then moved in two major migration waves lots of of 1000’s of years apart.
Homo Erectus is believed to have been the one early human to depart Africa in the primary wave, over 1.5 million years ago. However, this theory now seems uncertain in light of discoveries in Indonesia and the Philippines.
As we previously reportedevidence of meat butchering within the Philippines by some type of human dates back 700,000 years.
What we all know to this point about Filipino hobbits:
1. They were bipedal
Armand Salvador Mijares and his team presented their findings today at a press conference on the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
They concluded that hobbits were bipedal, but didn’t necessarily have an upright posture.
“The problem is that we only have the foot bone. We compared it with other primates. And it is definitely a fully bipedal creature. He can walk,” Mijares said.
“It can have higher climbing abilities than homo sapiens,” he added.
2. They had a small body shape
Mijares said they found the primary bone in 2007, but labeled it a “tiny H. sapiens.”
Further evidence unearthed in 2011 and 2015 confirmed the existence of Homo Luzonensis and further proved that the creatures were tiny.
“We can say they’re small, but we do not know the way small. Small because their teeth are very small,” he said.
