I hate to be the one to throw a wet blanket on all the excitement, but not all scientists are convinced this is a brand-new standalone species of Hominid. Let’s explore the data and you’ll see what I mean. Then we can extrapolate what it will take to prove that Bigfoot exists.

Florent Détroit (French National Museum of Natural History, Paris) and his colleagues revealed in the April 11^th issue of Nature, that they had discovered a new hominid species in Callao Cave on the Philippine island of Luzon. Détroit and his colleagues believe the creature lived there 50,000 to 67,000 years ago.

The team discovered that some of the bones of Homo luzonensis resembled those of other hominids, but they believe that taking all the evidence they gathered as a whole, the overall conclusion is that this is a new species of hominid.

 

What Did They Find?

During several excavations spanning 2007-2015, the team found about a dozen fossils:

7 isolated teeth (5 are believed to be from the same individual)

2 finger bones

2 toe bones

1 upper leg with the ends missing

1 foot bone found in an earlier excavation from the same cave sediment

The scientists shared some interesting details about the anatomy of these bones:

• The molars are exceedingly small, even smaller than those of the hobbit species, Homo floresiensis who lived relatively nearby on an Indonesian island around the same time.
• The molars shared some similar features to our own modern-day molars.
• The premolars are large for what they believe was the size of the individual, and they exhibit two or three roots. Nowadays most people have one root per premolar.
• The finger and toe bones are curved which makes the scientists think they climbed trees very well, like other hominids have done throughout time.
• The team estimates these creatures were taller than floresiensis but not as tall as we are today.

All these factors are very exciting and tantalizing, to be sure. There’s just one problem.

Where’s the DNA?

DNA is crucial to identifying new species of animals and hominids.  Yet this team of scientists has not found any, at least so far.

There doesn’t seem to be any marrow in which they could find some. The leg bone missing both ends is really too bad because that would possibly have been a good source of DNA.

The fact that none of the teeth have any tartar on them is also too bad because science has discovered in the last few years that tartar is an excellent source of DNA, particularly mitochondrial DNA which comes from the mother.

So that’s really unfortunate.

Other Scientists Offer Hope

An archaeologist named Katerina Douka from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany, believes it’s too soon to call H. luzonensis a new species because of the lack of DNA.

In the ScienceNews article, she says, “[So] all [evolutionary] possibilities must remain open.” What does she mean by that? Well it’s possible this new creature is the product of interbreeding between older hominids which would produce a hybrid, not a new species.

Another possibility is if these creatures settled on the island and just evolved differently to suit their new environment. They could still be part of an older species, but have evolved differently to suit their circumstances.

Paleoanthropologist Maria Martinon-Torres is the director of the National Research Centre on Human Evolution, Burgos, Spain. She thinks the findings are exciting, but also acknowledges it’s too soon to tell if this is a bonified separate species of hominid. She concluded that, “Only a more complete set of fossils, ideally complemented by ancient DNA, can illuminate whether such traits marked a new Homo member.”

Back to Bigfoot

You see how difficult it is to decide if another hominid species is really a new species, or a hybrid or something very different than all the rest. People make a big deal about how hard it is to get real evidence of Bigfoot’s existence, but yet we see it’s just as hard for the scientific community. So, we shouldn’t despair.

Getting a viable DNA sample is essential, preferably with a body, body part, or skeleton. It’s no less a requirement for proving that an ancient hominid exists, so it’s not like the scientific community is being extra hard on those of us who believe in Bigfoot.

Let’s remember that chimpanzees share 99% of the same DNA that we have, so how much more similar to us could Bigfoot be? It may be nearly impossible to tell our DNA apart, which is why we need to have a body, body part, or skeleton to be sure we can verify the results.

In the future, scientists may be able to definitively prove that H. luzonensis is a separate species from all the rest (or a hybrid), and it’s my hope that we will one day be able to do the same for Bigfoot.

So what do you think about all this new species excitement?

 

If you haven’t already, stop by our CryptoVille page on Facebook and see the silliness we get up to there! Like our page so you don’t miss any updates.

 

 

References

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-hominid-species-homo-luzonensis-philippines?fbclid=IwAR2eXcxkfmkTo-9S5Dn8zWnaVlN6izgftCs3MhIBG3-3fZW_o9fdDmCf7NM