
New human species found in Philippines - jnord
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47873072
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amatecha
IMO might want to revise the title to something like "Remains of previously-
unknown human species found in Philippines" \-- I initially thought the
headline was indicating some kind of super elusive secret species of humanoids
was living in some hidden cave or something. :'D

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doorbellguy
That was my exact first thought. Well, I dunno if it was intended to be a
clickbait of sorts, but it sure worked.

Cause that first title would have not made me click the story.

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omarchowdhury
It's 2019. Of course it's all clickbait. :)

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apo
The emergence of these extinct human species from the fossil record raises a
nagging question: what happened to them all?

Across the animal kingdom, single-species genera are somewhat uncommon. Why is
there only one species of the genus Homo?

A related question. The extinction of the last surviving non-Sapiens coincides
more or less with the retreat of the last glaciation period and the emergence
of human civilization (see the chart midway into the linked article). These
events also seem to have happened about the same time as the extinction of
certain large land mammals such as the saber-tooth tiger and woolly mammoth.

Are these extinctions, large land mammals and species of Homo, connected in
some way with the retreat of glaciers and/or the emergence of human
civilization?

These questions are asked (but not really answered) in the first part of the
book Sapiens.

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chrischen
Maybe they simply got merged into us? We all have neanderthal ancestry.

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daenz
Isn't "merged" a nice way of saying that the men and children were likely
murdered and the women taken for breeding? "Merged" conjures an image of
living peacefully side by side and interbreeding for many generations.

~~~
twblalock
> "Merged" conjures an image of living peacefully side by side and
> interbreeding for many generations.

That seems to be what happened with Neanderthals, at least at first.

Incidentally any violence may have been from the Neanderthals because almost
all of the genetic data shows Neanderthal ancestry from Neanderthal males and
homo sapiens females, and not the other way around.

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wavefunction
Maybe the Neanderthal were more sensitive and alluring to Homo sapiens
females, given their artistic side.

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mc32
Looks like this adds to the evidence that our ancestors left Africa in a
diaspora much, much earlier than had previously been thought, especially as
this is far from their original continent.

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SCAQTony
Maybe the out of Arica theory should be revisited? Post the Zanclean flood
when the Mediterranean basin was subtropical it appears there were hominids
"all over creation." That is to say Australia, Kenya, Philippines and even a
Homo Erectus version in India. Due to the subtropical climate and the below
sea Mediterranean basin who is to say that no proto-human in that basin did
not run north-south, and east?

~~~
twblalock
The out of Africa theory is overwhelmingly supported by genetic evidence. A
multi-origin hypothesis is basically impossible to support at this point.

What is now happening is that the out of Africa theory is absorbing new facts:

\- How many different migrations of homo sapiens out of Africa have there
been? (probably several)

\- Did any groups who spent time in Europe migrate back to Africa and
contribute new genes to the African gene pool (likely)

\- Did homo sapiens who left Africa encounter and breed with other hominin
species? (definitely, and those other species also originated in Africa)

David Reich's book from last year, "Who We Are and How We Got Here", covers a
lot of the recent discoveries.

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flukus
I don't think everyone here is using the same definition of "out of Africa"
here. There pretty much no doubt the hominids in general and modern humans
came from Africa. But subspecies like denisova and neanderthal evolved outside
of Africa (probably).

Most modern humans are from Africa with multi-regional mixins, those mixins
themselves were African origin if you go back far enough. It's all a game of
how far you want to go back.

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hinkley
I finally read 1491 and it just reinforced my concerns that we are
underestimating the boat building skills of our ancestors.

The making and using of stone tools leave a lot of refuse that shows up in the
archaeological record. If hominids keep showing up in places only accessible
by boat or Olympic class swimming then are we simply missing the evidence of
the enabling technologies?

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contingencies
While archaeologists definitely do tend to underestimate the viability of sea
voyages, don't consider 1491 a work of fact. It's rather fast and loose with
its interpretation. Zheng He or members of some of his 7 voyages did get to
the east coast of Africa, but any further movement is not supported by either
evidence or literature.

You can check out [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-
oceanic_co...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-
oceanic_contact_theories) for some debunking.

Most places on earth, America included, are or were reachable in small
watercraft at certain times of the year, even without sail, given certain
weather conditions. Only the remotest islands truly required advanced
seafaring for repeat navigation.

Anyway, aside from isolated boating incidents there are far more impressive
stories that are buried by popular history and its political supporters - the
use of Persian as a lingua franca for trade and diplomacy as far away as
China, various Indian Kingdoms throughout Southeast Asia and up to the Chinese
border, entire civilizations whose expanse was extremely significant but
virtually nobody has heard of, successful cultural genocides on grand scales,
etc.

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nbonaparte
You seem to have confused 1421 with 1491. The latter is generally considered
to be a well-researched book while the former is, as you say, merely a grand
tale.

~~~
contingencies
Perhaps, Bonaparte! But look at you resurfacing for articles on bony parts!

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blancheneige
>That could mean primitive human relatives left Africa and made it all the way
to South-East Asia, something not previously thought possible.

Happy to dig up the source when I get home, but I remember specifically
reading a paper not so long ago about a possible alternative to that
hypothesis, namely that our current species might have originated out of Asia,
not Africa. In which case it might not be so difficult to reconcile these
outcomes.

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toasterlovin
Our species definitely originated in Africa. All the genetics point to this
being the case (there is much greater genetic diversity in African populations
vs. anywhere else in the world). The question is whether additional
significant evolution (and even back flow into Africa) happened after we left
Africa. And I think the answer to that question is, yes, it did (as evidenced
by the significant admixture with Neanderthals and Denisovans).

If you're interested, there's a great episode of The Insight podcast with
Milford Wolpoff that discusses a lot of this:

[https://insitome.libsyn.com/multiregionalism-is-deadlong-
liv...](https://insitome.libsyn.com/multiregionalism-is-deadlong-live-
multiregionalism)

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nevster
Dumb question. How do we know it's a new species and not just humans with
particular genetic traits?

For example, if a million years from now, someone was to dig up a bunch of
bones from a dog kennel, what would they make of all the different bones from
Irish wolfhounds down to sausage dogs?

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mmanfrin
> That could mean primitive human relatives left Africa and made it all the
> way to South-East Asia, something not previously thought possible.

Article is poorly researched:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_floresiensis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_floresiensis)

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mehwoot
The article mentions exactly that like, two paragraphs later

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swamy_g
The headline is a bit deceiving. I thought there is a new human species
currently in existence in the Philippines.

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okonomiyaki3000
Come on, guys, we've seen this kind of headline before about hominid species
as well as other types of extinct animals. It may be a bit poorly worded but,
if something like that really did happen, you wouldn't hear about it first on
Hacker News.

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doitLP
Actually this is probably the first place many would hear about it.

