Geology

Genus

Biology

Zoology

Evolutionary biology

Geography

Early Pleistocene

Homo sapiens

Paleontology

Genetics

Archaeology

Paleoanthropology

Biological evolution

Pleistocene

Hominidae

Human evolution

Old World

Cave

Nature

A hominin third metatarsal discovered in 2007 in Callao Cave (Northern Luzon, the Philippines) and dated to 67&nbsp;thousand years ago provided the earliest direct evidence of a human presence in the Philippines. Analysis of this foot bone suggested that it belonged to the genus Homo, but to which species was unclear. Here we report the discovery of twelve additional hominin elements that represent at least three individuals that were found in the same stratigraphic layer of Callao Cave as the previously discovered metatarsal. These specimens display a combination of primitive and derived morphological features that is different from the combination of features found in other species in the genus Homo (including Homo floresiensis and Homo sapiens) and warrants their attribution to a new species, which we name Homo luzonensis. The presence of another and previously unknown hominin species east of the Wallace Line during the Late Pleistocene epoch underscores the importance of island Southeast Asia in the evolu...

A new species of Homo from the Late Pleistocene of the Philippines