Homo luzonensis

Homo luzonensis, also known as Callao Man and locally called "Ubag" after a mythical caveman, is an extinct, possibly pygmy, species of archaic human from the Late Pleistocene of Luzon, the Philippines. Their remains, including teeth and phalanges, were found in Callao Cave in the northern part of the island and date back to before 50,000 years ago. They were first thought to be modern humans in 2010, but in 2019, after more specimens were discovered, they were placed into a new species. This was because they had a mix of traits similar to modern humans, as well as to Australopithecus and early Homo.

In 2023, scientists found that the fossilized remains were about 134,000 ± 14,000 years old, much older than previously believed. Their ancestors, possibly from Asian H. erectus or an even earlier Homo group, would have had to cross several miles of sea to reach the island. Evidence shows that humans lived on Luzon as early as 771,000 to 631,000 years ago. The people in the cave mainly brought in Philippine deer for food and used tools to cut the meat.

Taxonomy

The first bone of this ancient human was found in 2007 inside Callao Cave in northern Luzon, Philippines. At first, scientists thought it belonged to modern humans, but later discoveries showed it had a mix of features like modern humans and much older human relatives. Because of this, they named it Homo luzonensis.

These bones include teeth, finger bones, and toe bones from at least three individuals. They are kept at the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila. Scientists aren't sure exactly where this species fits in the family tree of humans, but they think it may have come from an early human group that spread across Southeast Asia a very long time ago. The bones are from before 50,000 years ago, and signs of human activity on the island go back even further, to between 771,000 and 631,000 years ago.

Anatomy

Like other animals that live only on Luzon island, Homo luzonensis might have been smaller than other humans because of living on an island. But we need more complete bones to know for sure.

The teeth of Homo luzonensis are small. Their molars are smaller than those of another small human species, Homo floresiensis. Like us, the molars get smaller toward the back of the mouth. The finger bones are long, narrow, and curved, similar to some early humans and some modern humans. The foot bones are unique compared to other early humans. Because we only have small pieces of bones, it is hard to know exactly how tall they were, but they might have been about as tall as some modern people from the Philippines.

Culture

The island of Luzon has always been surrounded by water, so the ancestors of H. luzonensis likely crossed a big body of water to get there.

Most of the bone pieces found in Callao Cave come from Philippine deer, suggesting that people brought deer into the cave sometimes. The Philippines didn’t have big meat-eating animals during that time, so these bones were probably left by humans. Other animals found there include the Philippine warty pig and an extinct type of bovid. There are marks on a deer bone that show it was cut, but no stone tools were found in the cave. This might mean people used tools made from things like wood or bone, or they processed meat somewhere else.

At the Rizal Archaeological Site in Rizal, Kalinga, Philippines, scientists found the almost complete skeleton of an extinct rhino that had been cut up by early humans about 709,000 years ago. Along with the rhino bones, they found early stone tools, including cores, flakes, and hammerstones, as well as bones from Stegodon (a relative of elephants), deer, turtles, and monitor lizards. Some of the stone tools looked similar to those found at another site called Arubo 1 in central Luzon.