Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 18 april 2019
Filipinos plan more diggings where new human species found

By JIM GOMEZ from Callao were the old- ago. Analysis of the bones
Associated Press est to be found in the Philip- from the Callao caves led
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — pines, predating those dis- the study authors to con-
Archaeologists who discov- covered in Tabon Cave on clude they belonged to a
ered fossil bones and teeth the western island of Pala- previously unknown mem-
of a previously unknown wan by thousands of years. ber of our “Homo” branch
human species that thrived While the archaeological of the human family tree.
more than 50,000 years find could attract more sci- One of the toe bones and
ago in the northern Philip- entists, Dizon worried that the overall pattern of tooth
pines said Thursday they it could also draw vandals shapes and sizes differ from
plan more diggings and and treasure hunters who what’s been seen before
called for better protection could threaten the seven- in the Homo family, the re-
of the popular limestone chamber cave complex, searchers said.
cave complex where the which is a popular tourism The fossil bones and teeth
remains were unearthed. destination. An open-air found about 3 meters (9.8
Filipino archaeologist Ar- Filipino archeologist Armand Salvador Mijares shows a femur chapel with pews and an feet) below the ground in
mand Salvador Mijares bone, one of those they recovered from Callao Cave belonging altar in the cave complex the cave show they be-
to a new specie they called Homo luzonensis, during a press
said the discovery of the conference in metropolitan Manila, Philippines on Thursday, has become a popular longed to small-bodied
remains in Callao Cave in April 11, 2019. venue for weddings and people. Bones of deer and
Cagayan province made Associated Press filmmakers. related animals were found
the Philippines an important Philippines. Tests showed the rare discovery, said he “Penablanca has been a in the area, some with cut
research ground on human two of the fossil fragments plans to resume the dig- treasure hunting haven of marks, suggesting they
evolution. The new species had minimum ages of gings next year and hopes many people,” Dizon said, were butchered although
is called Homo luzonensis 50,000 years and 67,000 to find larger fossil bones, referring to the Cagayan there were no stone tools or
after the main northern is- years, according to a study artifacts and possibly stone provincial town where the sharp implements found in
land of Luzon, where the published by the scientific tools used by people in Callao caves are located. the immediate area where
remains were dug up start- journal Nature. those times. Aside from “Maybe it will reignite their the human fossils were dug
ing in 2007. “This puts the Philippines, Callao Cave, human fossils kind of activity so that’s up, Mijares said.
Beaming with pride, Mijares our scientific community in have recently been found why it needs protection Although the find con-
displayed the six fragments the spotlight,” Mijares said. in another site in Bulacan now more than ever.” tributes a new insight into
of bones from the feet, “Before, we’re just periph- province just north of the The main exodus of mod- modern man’s ancient be-
hands and thigh and seven eral in this debate of hu- capital, Manila, Mijares ern man’s own species ginnings, Dizon said it also
teeth of three individuals man evolution.” said without elaborating. from Africa that all of to- raised new questions and
from that bygone era in a Mijares, who led a small Another veteran Filipino ar- day’s non-African people deepened the mystery
news conference at the team of foreign and lo- chaeologist, Eusebio Dizon, are descended from took behind the evolution of
state-run University of the cal archaeologists behind said the human remains place around 60,000 years man.q

Study: Aegean farmers replaced

hunters of ancient Britain

By FRANK JORDANS earlier, according to previ- the Mediterranean, and
Associated Press ous DNA studies. then up to Britain.
BERLIN (AP) — A wave of “It is difficult to say why this Strikingly, the newcomers
migrants from what is now is, but it may be that those appear to have arrived
Greece and Turkey arrived last British hunter-gatherers first on the western coast
in Britain some 6,000 years were relatively few in num- before spreading to other
ago and virtually replaced ber,” said Mark G. Thomas, parts of Britain, suggesting
the existing hunter-gather- a professor of evolutionary they didn’t cross the English
er population, according genetics at University Col- Channel using the shortest
to a study published Mon- lege London who co-wrote possible course but instead
day in the journal Nature. the study. braved the wilder Atlantic
Scientists examining sam- “Even if these two popu- route.
ples of ancient remains dat- lations had mixed com- “This route is a continua-
In this Wednesday Feb. 7, 2018, file photo a full facial ing as far back as 8500 BC pletely, the ability of adept tion of the Mediterranean
reconstruction model of a head based on the skull of Britain’s found the dark-skinned for- continental farmers and coastal dispersal route but
oldest complete skeleton on display during a screening event agers who had inhabited their descendants to main- of course in much more
of The First Brit: Secrets Of The 10,000 Year Old Man at The Natural the British Isles since the last tain larger population sizes complicated maritime cir-
History Museum, in London.
Associated Press Ice Age left comparatively would produce a signifi- cumstances,” said Carles
little trace in the genetic re- cant diminishing of hunter- Lalueza-Fox of the Institute
cord after the transition to gatherer ancestry over of Evolutionary Biology in
farming, suggesting there time.” Barcelona, Spain.
wasn’t much interbreeding The researchers from Brit- Lalueza-Fox, who wasn’t in-
with the newcomers who ain and the United States volved with the study, said
arrived around 4000 BC. found that the remains of the findings match what is
By contrast, the same Ae- Britain’s early farmers were known about the spread of
gean migrants mixed ex- genetically similar to those megalithic structures along
tensively with local popula- discovered in what is now Europe’s Atlantic coast.
tions when they introduced Spain and Portugal, indi- Perhaps the best-known of
farming to continental cating this population trav- these structures is Stone-
Europe about 1,000 years eled east to west through henge in Britain. q