Homo luzonensis
Another small hominin on another island, identified from teeth and finger bones in the Philippines.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 17 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 5 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
Described in 2019 from Callao Cave on Luzon and dated to at least 67,000 years ago, Homo luzonensis has a strange mosaic of features: teeth that are small and simple like ours, but curved finger and toe bones resembling australopiths. Luzon, like Flores, has never been connected to the mainland. Two independent island hominin lineages suggest either that water crossings happened more often than assumed, or that isolation reliably produces this outcome.