Another new hominid species?

[circumspice]

New finds from a cave shelter on Luzon Island in the Philippines:


https://www.google.com/amp/s/relay.nati ... luzonensis

[Minimalist]

Great stuff. In general I have a gut feeling that people are too ready to declare something a new "species" when all it might be is the most likely result of constant inbreeding within a small population.

But it seems to have set off a lively debate which is what science is all about.

[circumspice]

I think that the HE remains at Dmansi have gone a long way toward resolving that issue. Those skulls & post cranial remains showed just how much variation in phenotype a contemporaneous population can exhibit. If the archaeologists involved hadn't been able to prove the contemporaneous nature of the finds, those remains would certainly have been judged to be two or more species.

[circumspice]

LMAO!!! I reread that National Geographic article & watched the video... I once again noticed the Clovis First bias exhibited by the National Geographic Society... Towards the end of that short video, it shows the dispersal routes of hominins throughout the world... For the migration into the new world continents, it prominently displays the so called Ice Free Corridor route from Berengia through North America & into South America... To hedge its bets it shows a truncated version of the Pacific Coastal Highway route... it's cut off roughly at the northern end of that proposed route... It appears that National Geographic doesn't want to make enemies...

[Cognito]

Based on all of the anomalous finds to date, it is obvious to me that members of the human species began entering the Americas before the Eemian Interglacial 125kya. Which species arrived is difficult to pin down since human remains are incredibly rare. However, their tools and traces are all over the landscape if you look hard enough to find them.

Humanoids a quarter million years ago were excellent survivors in a hostile environment; smart, social, adaptable, and above all, curious about what was over the next hill. Being on the move in groups was probably a safe way to live at the time while continuously exploring and finding new resources to enhance survival.