Early human finds

In this category Wondermondo has included most important and unusual places with remains and other traces of activities by early humans (including other species of humans) and other hominins.

This is a subcategory to the category of fossil finds.

What are humans and hominins?

Well… the answer to this question is not simple. Let’s start with some…

…History of research

Some centuries ago people knew for sure: there are humans (us, the lovely us…) and there are animals. But since then step by step this border has been erased and nothing is as simple and clear as it seemed.

First, the great Carl Linnaeus in 1758 invented other species of humans – Homo troglodytes, cave man. No scientific data backed him up at these times… Only one century later, in 1856, science recognized a true "alternative" human – Homo neanderthalensis.

Later more and more humans and “almost humans” were discovered by scientists. Thus, in 1927 in China they discovered Sinanthropus pekinensis (now: Homo erectus pekinensis) but some years earlier, in 1924 in South Africa – Australopithecus africanus and in 1930ies – the more primitive Paranthropus.

But the most important finds were made in Kenya, in Olduvai Gorge. Here Hans Reck (1913) and later Louis Leakey (1931) discovered some 600 thousand years old remains of humans. Further research in this part of Africa as well as South Africa yielded the richest diversity of ancient humans anywhere in the world. Now it is clear: humans originated in Africa.

21st century brings new discoveries

Amazing finds continued elsewhere in the world, especially in the 21st century. In 2003 a new, surprisingly recent human species was discovered – the small Homo floresiensis on Flores island who lived here some 50,000 years ago. A further surprise was brought by Denisova cave in Altai Krai, Russia: in 2010 here was discovered evidence that in Eurasia some 40 thousand years ago lived one more species of humans next to Neanderthals and, possibly, modern humans. Research shows that interbreeding with both Neanderthals and Denisovans affected the human genome and there might be other unknown human species involved too.

The next exciting discovery was made in 2019 when a long known suspect for another species – bones of weird small people in Callao Caves (Philippines) were confirmed to be a new species of humans – Homo luzonensis.

Other humans

Today there is only one living species of "true" humans – us, Homo sapiens. But there existed other species in the past. How many? We don’t know…

Wondermondo can cautiously propose the following list of known other species of humans which here are listed by the time of their extinction:

Our species and other species of humans who lived outside Africa

1. Our species – Homo sapiens with two more or less accepted subspecies: Homo sapiens sapiens (that’s us!) and the ancient, extinct Homo sapiens idaltu. The oldest known specimen of our species lived some 300,000 years ago in contemporary Morocco but most likely – elsewhere in Africa as well.
2. Homo neanderthalensis was the first "other" human to be discovered because it lived in Europe, wherein the 19th century developed modern natural sciences. It is not entirely clear whether this is subspecies or separate species but it interbred with our species and left an impact on the genome of people outside Africa. Neanderthals evolved some 400,000 years ago and the last of their kin lived in Gibraltar some 40,000 years ago.
3. Denisovan (preliminarily – Homo sp. Altai) is another recent discovery from 2010. They lived in Asia and also interbred with other species of humans including our species. Thus they also left an impact on our genome, especially on the contemporary Melanesians. Their last refuge could be some Indonesian islands although no remains have been found here yet. In Denisova Cave, they lived some 100 – 40 thousand years ago but we don’t know their age too well yet.
4. Homo luzonensis was discovered in 2019. These small island people lived some 70,000 – 50,000 years ago in the northern part of the present-day Philippines.
5. Homo floresiensis was an exciting find of scientists on the island of Flores in Indonesia in 2003. These small people ("hobits") lived some 190,000 – 50,000 years ago. It is possible that before them on Flores and some other islands of Southeast Asia lived even smaller people.
6. “Upright human” (Homo erectus) existed before Homo heidelbergensis although scientists are not too sure where one species transformed into another. These people lived in Africa some 1.9 million years ago, spread to Asia, and went extinct some 143,000 years ago.
7. Homo heidelbergensis lived some 600,000 – 200,000 years ago. This human might be the ancestor of us, Neanderthals and Denisovans. He lived in Africa, Europe, and Asia.
8. Homo antecessor lived some 1.2 million – 800,000 years ago. This might be the same Homo heidelbergensis or its predecessor. These people lived in Africa and migrated to Europe.

Species of other species of humans who lived only in Africa

1. “Rhodesian man” (Homo rhodesiensis) lived in Africa some 300,000 – 125,000 years ago. It is very possible that this is African subspecies of Homo heidelbergensis. This might be also the direct predecessor to us, Homo sapiens.
2. Homo naledi was described only in 2015. This comparatively primitive man lived in the time period between 335,000 and 236,000 years ago in Africa.
3. Florisbad Skull might belong to Homo helmei which is either early Homo sapiens, late Homo heidelbergensis or intermediate species in between. This skull was found in South Africa and is some 260,000 years old.
4. Homo gautengensis was described in 2010 and many scientists are not sure whether this is a separate species or subspecies of Homo erectus. It lived some 1.9 – 0.6 million years ago.
5. Homo ergaster lived some 1.9 – 1.4 million years ago in the eastern and southern parts of Africa. This also might be our predecessor who transformed into Homo erectus… or it simply is Homo erectus.
6. The controversial Homo rudolfensis is possible other species of humans who lived some 2 – 1.5 million years ago in Africa. It also could be a subspecies of Homo habilis.
7. Homo habilis lived in Africa some 2.1 – 1.5 million years ago and could be the oldest known species of humans.

Who lived before humans?

Thus: earlier existed other animals which were closer to us than to our closest living relative – chimpanzees. It seems, all of these creatures (almost humans!) lived more than 1 million years ago.

When the first people were born, there still lived the last species of Paranthropus – robust, smaller and muscular primates. They went extinct around 1 million years ago.

Ancestors of Homo and Paranthropus were Australopithecus were extinct some 2 million years ago. Direct ancestor of humans (Homo) could be Australopithecus garhi who lived in the contemporary Ethiopia and already used stone tools.

Even older are such hominins as Ardipithecus (which seem to be closer to chimpanzees than to us), Orrorin and Sahelanthropus – all in Africa.