For three decades or so, Armand Mijares has been climbing mountains and exploring caves, initially as an anthropologist studying the culture of indigenous groups, and later as an archaeologist searching for clues about the past.
With the success of his latest discovery, one can consider him the Philippines’ very own Indiana Jones –minus the death-defying stunts and golden treasures.
He even has the classic Indiana Jones theme song as a ring tone to boot.
Inside his office at the University of the Philippines (UP) are hundreds of knick knacks and curiosities, including two replicas of hominid skulls and a conspicuous yellow briefcase. Locked inside that briefcase are his latest treasures – 13 teeth and bones from a new species of ancient humans.
Mijares and his colleagues from around the world concluded that the fossilized remains make up an never-before-seen hominin species, which they now call Homo luzonensis based on the Philippines’ largest island Luzon.
“The discovery situates the Philippines as a major area of human evolutionary research,” Mijares said during a press conference last April 11 when he announced the findings.
He also believes that the discovery will result in many Philippine textbooks being revised to include theHomo luzonensis, not only as a new species, but as the oldest known ancient human in the archipelago.
Game-changing
As an archaeologist, Mijares always believed that only Homo sapiens – the species of the modern man – had been present in the Philippines, especially since most of the country was not connected to mainland Asia at a time when ancient humans were migrating out of Africa.
But when in 2007 he found a foot bone that did not fit in the description of Homo sapiens and other ancient human species, he started questioning his own beliefs.
“I needed to shift my own paradigm. I was on the side then…I was a believer that only Homo sapiens arrived in Luzon,” he said.
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