The Three Out Of Africa Migrations

I came across research by J. H. Relethford, who in a paper published in Nature in 2008 cites Templeton's work about the different expansions of our ancestors out of their African homeland.

The Archaeological Evidence

The fossil evidence shows that H. georgicus and H. erectus lived in Eurasia roughly 1.7 million years ago, and that there were different hominins in that region since then. The remains of H. heidelbergensis, Neanderthals and Denisovans also show evolution and possibly other out of Africa events around 600 ky ago. Finally our own branch, H. sapiens left Africa possibly twice, an early, "failed" migration around 250-100 ky ago and the final move that established modern humans around the world ~60 ky ago. At least, that is the official account.

The Genetic Confirmation

What is interesting is that genetic analysis done by Templeton confirms these dates. Again, I wonder if this fit between the data in the genes and the bones and stones is real, or was somehow eased with the foreknowledge of what had to be confirmed...

Below Is what Relethford wrote, including his citation of Templeton:

"The most comprehensive of these analyses has been performed by Templeton (2005, 2007) who examined 25 DNA regions: mtDNA, Y chromosome DNA, 11 X-linked markers and 12 autosomal markers using a 6-Myr-old date for the human–chimpanzee divergence for calibration. Using a method known as nested-clade phylogeographic analysis, Templeton found that 15 of these markers showed evidence of geographic expansion. The estimated ages of range expansion vary significantly across these markers and do not fit a model of a single expansion, but instead cluster into three groups: (1) an expansion out of Africa 1.9 Myr ago (95% CI=0.99–3.10 Myr), (2) an expansion out of Africa 650 000 years ago (95% CI=390 000–970 000 years ago) and (3) an expansion out of Africa 130 000 years ago (95% CI=9600–169 000 years ago)."

These three events coincide with the H. georgicus and H. erectus, the Neanderthal, and the H. sapiens migrations! I find the confidence intervals rather large (0.9 to 3.1 million years for erectus, 390-970 ky for Neanderthals and 9.6 to 169 ky for us). Such large intervals reveal a high uncertainty in the statistical analysis.

Is this a Coincidence? or do genetics and hard archaeology agree with solid evidence?

Relethford warns that: "Given the large confidence intervals typical of coalescent analysis, this correspondence should be taken as suggestive and not conclusive, but the apparent congruence of the fossil and genetic records is interesting and deserves continued attention, particularly as data on more low-recombination DNA regions become available."

Note that word of caution about Templeton's findings. John Henry Relethford originally was a staunch supporter of the Multiregionalism theory (humans evolved in parallel in the Old World and intermingled) and rejected the initial Out of Africa theory which suggested a total replacement of other hominins by modern humans as they marched across Eurasia, wiping them out. He later shifted to a compromise theory (Mostly Out of Africa) where there was an interplay between African H. sapiens and the hominins in Eurasia. He was concerned with the fate of these Eurasian people.

Alan Templeton on the other hand adopted a rigid position against the replacement Out of Africa theory, criticizing it. His papers reflect this (see above), and he continued with another paper in 2013, and again in 2023, supporting his point of view.

Templeton wrote a very interesting critique about some statistical tools, and admixture trees, which will be the subject of a future post.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall © 

Early Hominin presence in Sulawesi

An article published one month ago (Burhan B, Hakim B, Sumantri I, Suryatman, Saiful AM, Oktaviana AA, et al. (2025). A near-continuous archaeological record of Pleistocene human occupation at Leang Bulu Bettue, Sulawesi, Indonesia. PLoS One 20(12): e0337993. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0337993. Dec. 23, 2025), reported that there was an archaic kind of hominin living in Sulawesi long before the arrival of modern humans to the island, and may have even coexisted there until they disappeared.

The study reported the presence of stone tools as old as 208,000 years ago, and surprisingly some of them were of a kind of tool known as "picks", which have appeared in some older sites in the region suggesting the presence of a well established culture of archaic hominins in this part of Asia long before H. sapiens arrived.

Below are some quotes from the paper

"Prior research has indicated that the Indonesian island of Sulawesi was host to archaic hominins of unknown taxonomic affinity from at least 1.04 million years ago (Ma), while members of our own species (Homo sapiens) were probably established on this Wallacean landmass from at least 51.2 thousand years ago (ka), and possibly as early as 65 ka.
... Here, we report the results of multiple seasons of deep-trench excavations at Leang Bulu Bettue, a limestone cave rock-shelter complex in the Maros-Pangkep karst region of South Sulawesi.
... Notably, there is evidence for animal butchery and stone artefact production including a stone ‘pick’ at around 132.3–208.4 ka followed by a major shift in human cultural activity during the Late Pleistocene. By around 40 ka, an earlier occupation phase (Phase I) characterised by a straightforward cobble-based core and flake technology ... had been replaced by an entirely new occupation phase (Phase II) with a markedly distinct archaeological signature, including the first evidence for artistic expression and symbolic culture. We consider the implications of this behavioural disconformity for our understanding of the history of humans on Sulawesi, including the possibility it reflects the replacement of archaic hominins by modern humans."

So the Phase I "cobble-based" core flake stone knapping technique and the "pick" cultural tradition vanished 40 ky ago, surely due to the replacement of the archaic people by modern humans.

The paper notes that stone tools were recently discovered in Sulawesi, not far from this site, at Talepyu (over 194 ky old) and at Calio (over 1 Million years old). They state that these archaic hominins are "of a yet unknwon taxonomy." These dates and those of this Leang Bulu Bettue site (132-208 ky ago) show that they were not made by modern humans.

The authors propose two scenarios to explain what took place here on Sulawesi:

1. "The entirety of Phase I reflects the last period of a long history of occupation by a group of archaic hominins–as already noted, likely those responsible for the early lithic artefacts recovered from the Walanae Basin (Talepu and Calio) ~80 km to the northeast – that was replaced by an incoming group of modern humans around 40ka, with the arrival of the latter being the cause of the change in the LBB record (i.e., the onset of Phase II). The archaic hominins, based on the present state of knowledge from the wider region, could have been H. erectus and/or a taxon closely related to H. floresiensis, Denisovans, or an as-yet undocumented hominin species that is now extinct."
2. ""The earliest H. sapiens in the region produced lithic technologies that more closely resembled the technology of the archaic hominins of the Walanae basin at least 200 ka to 1.04 Ma than those made by later H. sapiens, and that the technological disconnect cannot be described by a species-level replacement. The apparent technological continuity may be the result of contact between two groups, or simply a convergent response to the same resources and conditions. This situation is in keeping with the evidence for the behavioural flexibility of early modern humans as they spread out of Africa and began to colonise unfamiliar environments. The technological and faunal shift at around 40 ka, resulting in Phase II and the lithic Upper Industry, would therefore reflect an unknown local trigger, spontaneous innovation, and/or the arrival of a second wave of H. sapiens."

The Calio stone tools (Paper here, published in Aug. 2025) were dated to 1.04 million years, and "and possibly up to 1.48 Ma" this makes them as old, or even older than the stone tools found on Flores Island at Wolo Sege, which are 1.02 Ma. These are the oldest ones yet discovered in this region, and they mark a very early date for the presence of ancient hominins in this area. Much older than the previous date from Talepyu (paper here).

These ancient and now extinct hominins navigated open sea to cross the Wallace Line (an imaginary boundary that runs through the Lombok Strait in the Indonesian archipelago) and reach Sulawesi. Even during glacial maximums, with low sea levels, the shortest distance between Sulawesi and the closest continental Asian landmass was at least 50 km (31 miles).

An interesting paper modelled how these hominins could have crossed the sea: "Results indicate that crossings are facilitated by low sea level, but the possibility of crossings at high sea level cannot be discarded. All of the three analyzed departure areas could be considered feasible sources for arrivals at Sulawesi but, Borneo is by far the most likely source area and Mindanao departures more likely to arrive in Sulawesi than those from the Banda Arc. The shortest simulated period voyagers would have to survive at sea are 3–8 days, 14–19 days and 12–20 days for Borneo, Mindanao and Band Arc departures respectively...Our results suggest that Sulawesi could have been reached by accidental drift voyages and offer direct support to previous studies that inferred drift-based arrival at the island based on spatial distribution of fauna and hominin subsistence strategies over Wallacea. While successful drifts could have started from any of the three evaluated source areas, arrivals from Borneo are more likely than those from Mindanao and trips from Banda Arc."

So, these people drifted on a mat of vegetation from Borneo to Sulawesi, the same way that animals are supposed to have crossed the Wallace Line. They managed to survive the crossing which lasted between 3 and 14 days by chance and settled in Sulawesi.

We should consider the option that they made rafts, or canoes and carried their kits or gear with them, to fish or move along the coast. Perhaps they drifted to Sulawesi on these boats.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Asian evolution of Hominins (2024 paper)

Today's post shares a paper on the dispersal and evolution of hominins in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. It has plenty of interesting insights on the time line and geographic dispersal of our ancient ancestors in Asia.

The paper is the following: Rikai Sawafuji, Takumi Tsutaya, Naoyuki Takahata, Mikkel Winther Pedersen, Hajime Ishida, (2024). East and Southeast Asian hominin dispersal and evolution: A review. Quaternary Science Reviews. Volume 333, 1 June 2024, 108669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108669.

It summarizes current knowledge, and theories, as well as suggesting some future research avenues. A very good paper!

I enjoyed the description of Homo erectus. This hominin has always fascinated me since I was a teen, when I read about it in my elder sister's highschool biology book (no internet in the 1970s). At that time there was the Peking Man, and the Java Man from Solo Rivr, and no African erectus. I also read about the Rhodesia Man, Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons, and the Australopithecines in Africa, more primitive and smaller. It seemed a complex mixture of different people. Now, over 50 years later, the panorama is still obscure!

"There are various views on the classification of H. erectus, e.g., H. erectus from Africa as a separate species called H. ergaster (Tattersall et al., 2015). In this review, we use the broader definition of H. erectus (H. erectus sensu lato) and consider the African H. erectus as part of the same taxon.
H. erectus is currently recognized as the first hominin to spread out of Africa and is thought to have migrated eastward across Eurasia and then southward into Southeast Asia. The fossil records are concentrated in Europe, China, and Java, with little data available for the intermediate areas.
Some of the earliest probable fossils of H. erectus are the ∼2.04 Ma cranium found at Drimolen, South Africa (Herries et al., 2020) and ∼2 Ma mandible at Melka Kunture, Ethiopia (Mussi et al., 2023), while the earliest generally accepted evidence of their presence out of Africa was discovered at Dmanisi, Georgia, and dated to ∼1.8 Ma (Ferring et al., 2011; Lordkipanidze et al., 2013).
In China, recent findings have suggested an earlier hominin presence although the evidence is scarce and primarily based on stone tools found at Shangchen, dated to ∼2.1 Ma (Zhu et al., 2018), and on hominin teeth dated between 2.42–1.8 Ma at Jianshi-Longgu Cave (Li et al., 2017a). These findings, which might predate the Dmanisi fossils, suggest the intriguing possibility that either H. erectus or another hominin arrived in China earlier than the time of Dmanisi (Cartmill and Smith, 2022). However, due to the scarcity of comprehensive fossil records, these conclusions must be approached with caution, as definitive identification of these early hominins in China remains challenging.
Fossils and lithics of likely H. erectus found in China include ∼1.66 Ma stone tools from Majuangou III in the Nihewan Basin (Zhu et al., 2004) and 1.7–1.6 Ma stone tools from Shangshazui (Ao et al., 2013), and a ∼1.63 Ma cranium from Lantian-Gongwangling, near Shang Chen (Zhu et al., 2015). Two ∼1.7 Ma incisors have also been found in Yuanmou, South China (Zhu et al., 2008), though their age determination remains questioned (Bae, 2010). Taken together with the fossil and lithic evidence, the conservative age of the emergence of H. erectus in China is about 1.7–1.6 Ma."

The interesting part is the suggrestion of hominin presence in China ~2.4 to 2.1 Ma, older than the earliest South African fossils (~2.04 Ma), also that they were not Homo erectus but "...another hominin arrived in China earlier than ... Dmanisi." This could imply the presence of Homo habilis or even Australopithecines in Asia.

The following image shows how the different lineages of hominins coexisted in Asia during the past 2 million years.

Chronology of the genus Homo in EA/SEA.. Source

The image below shows the distribution of hominins in Eastern and Southeastern Asia/p>.

The Story and Timeline of Hominins in Asia

The paper gives a brilliant description of the dispersal of hominins in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

"As more and more pieces are continuously added to our understanding of hominins, their geographical distribution and persistence, new questions arise, and details about how the different hominins dispersed and why they went extinct still remain unclear. From current fossil records and genetic evidence, one plausible and coherent scenario of hominin dispersal is the following: H. erectus emerged in Africa and expanded into the Eurasian continent around 2 Ma, later occupying Europe, East Asia (China) and Southeast Asia (Java).
Subsequently, the common ancestor of H. sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans split into two groups: one was in Africa (later leading to H. sapiens) and the other settled around the Middle East at some point. The latter interbred with a super-archaic hominin group (possibly H. erectus) around 700–600 ka.
The Eurasian hominin group then split into two groups. One settled in the West (Europe and Western Asia) leading to Neanderthals, while the other settled in Asia leading to Denisovans. Denisovans interbred with H. erectus in Eurasia, occupying their niche. At some point, Denisovans also expanded into East and Southeast Asia, where the groups diverged into different subgroups (D0, D1, D2, D3, the details are in the chapter of Denisovans). Meanwhile, H. erectus may have become extinct around 400 ka in East Asia and 100 ka in Southeast Asia. Denisovans reached the Altai region, eventually meeting and interbreeding with Neanderthals several times around 140–80 ka. Meanwhile, some H. sapiens left Africa before 200 ka. This initial migration was unsuccessful, but interbreeding with Neanderthals at this time left traces in their genome (Peyrégne et al., 2023). There were several subsequent out-of-Africa events, which might have reached Asia, but the populations that led to our ancestors left Africa around 55 ka. They interbred with Neanderthals in West Asia and with Denisovans in EA/SEA. Note that we consider the super-archaic hominin contributing to the Denisovan genome to be H. erectus. While there is a possibility that hominins other than H. erectus and Denisovans migrated into Asia or evolved from H. erectus, this is not considered here due to the lack of evidence."

The suggestion that (no date given for this event) the ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans moved out of Africa, settled in the Middle East and some 700-600 ya mating there with H. erectus is very interesting!

The further admixing of Denisovans with erectus as they moved across Eurasia is not often mentioned. And the final comment that "... there is a possibility that hominins other than H. erectus... migrated into Asia or evolved from H. erectus," is worth exploring as there is no evidence to prove it happened. But, it is possible and likely.

The paper also has some interesting comments on the four lineages of Denisovans (with a neat map), and their history:

Denisovans

"The common ancestor of Denisovans and Neanderthals which occupied around the Middle East interbred with a super-archaic hominin, and afterwards the Denisovan ancestors diverged from the Neanderthal ancestral group and moved into Asia. Some of them spread towards Papua and settled in Island Southeast Asia (D1). Another group remained in South or Southeast Asia (D2), and from there, another group moved further north into East Asia (D0, D3). During the early phase of this migration, they encountered a super-archaic hominin population and interbred. The D0 group settled somewhere in East Asia. The D3 group reached the Altai in Siberia (D3), where they met and interbred with Neanderthals."

The section dedicated to small-sized hominins Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis is great, I learned that the latter's "finger and toe bones are elongated and curved, a feature similar to australopithecines". Nevertheless, evidence suggests both "tiny" hominins may descend from H. erectus.

Ancient Mariners

It is remarkable that these two groups of people (and a third responsible for stone tools found in Sulawesi) crossed open sea, settled in islands, and lived there in isolation until their demise when modern humans reachd the area. Navigating abilities is something seldom discussed in any paper, including this one, which only says "Although it is unclear how each hominin crossed the sea, they succeeded intentionally or accidently"

It is evident that even archaic forms of hominins like erectus crossed open sea. Could they have reached America? (See my post about their navigating skills, and this post on Neanderthal "sailors").

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

H. erectus in Georgia 1.8 Ma (Kvemo Orozmani site). Aug. 2025 discovery

After my recent post on Homo georgicus and the Dmanisi site in Georgia, eastern Europe. I read about other sites in the area, and learned that in the Georgian village of Orozmani, roughly 13 km (8 miles) from Dmainsi, two remarkable discoveries had been made: in 2021 a tooth was found, and in July of 2025, a 1.8-million-year-old jawbone was dug up, it belongs to Homo erectus. (Source.)

Africa, West Eurasia and Dmanisi, Georgia map. A. Whittall © 2025

The map above gives some perspective. The distance, in a straight line, from the closest point of Africa to Dmanisi (Suez Canal), and the site in Dmanisi is 1,600 km, or 1,000 miles. These people moved all the way from the alleged cradle of mankind in Turkana, Kenya, and Olduvai in Tanzania, to Sinai to bridge the Red Sea (2,900 km - 1,800 mi.) and then enter an unknown territory to trek another 1,600 km - 1,000 miles north into the Caucasus Region.

Implications

In what is now Georgia (Dmanisi and Kvemo Orozmani) these hominins could have evolved becoming H. erectus. Erectus later moved west deeper into Asia (where we find them in Indonesia and China), and being the top hominins of their era, they also surely back-migrated into Africa, where they evolved into H. heidelbergensis / rhodesiensis, from which our Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestors arose, leaving Africa for a second time. Those remaining in Africa evolved into archaic African sapiens ancestors. Perhaps, at the same time, the Asian erectus in the Far Eastern parts of Asia evolved into the archaic sapiens that the Chinese have been uncovering there.

The Papers on the Orozmani site

There is only one paper on this site and most of the information comes from the media reporting the findings. Apparently an international team of reasearchers from different European countries have been digging here since 2021. That year stone tools and the bones of animals hade been discovered and dated to a similar age to the nearby Dmanisi site (1.77 to 1.84 million years). The tooth has not yet been associated with any hominin. The jawbone from the summer of 2025 seems to belong to a H. erectus. See this media news release.

The only reference I have found (Google Scholar and combing the Internet) is this one:
Bidzinashvili, G., Chagelashvili, R., Coil, R., Kopaliani, G., Martkoplishvili, I., & Vanishvili, N. (2023). Kvemo Orozmani, Georgia: a new Lower Paleolithic archaeological site in the Southern Caucasus. Paper presented at Paleoanthropology Society Meetings, Portland, Oregon, United States.
Its abstract is the given below. Note that this paper dates back to March 2023, and is reporting the first findings, not the jawbone.

"The Southern Caucasus represent one of the hubs for the earliest range expansions of hominins during the Early Pleistocene, as evidenced by the extensive archaeological site at Dmanisi, Georgia. Here, we present findings from a new Lower Paleolithic archaeological site in Georgia: Kvemo Orozmani, which is located approximately twenty kilometers west of Dmanisi. Previous dating and analyses of phytoliths and sedimentology correlated the Kvemo Orozmani and nearby Zemo Orozmani sequences to the Dmanisi stratigraphy, indicating roughly contemporaneous localities (Messager et al., 2011). A recent revisit to the Kvemo Orozmani profile revealed Oldowan-like stone artifacts along with faunal remains. Subsequent excavations began in 2020 and have produced more lithic artifacts, faunal remains from numerous carnivores and ungulates, and a hominin tooth. The latter find doubles the number of hominin-bearing Early Pleistocene localities in the Southern Caucasus and offers potential insights into the hominin populations who expanded into this region. Here, we present our initial findings on site formation, archaeology, taphonomy, and paleontology and how this site fits into the greater context of the earliest hominin expansions into Eurasia."

Interestingly it mentions "Oldowan-like stone artifacts" which are pre-Homo erectus, the erectus people developed the Acheulean lithic techology, Oldowan is associated with H. habilis, though a recent study published this year suggest that another group of hominins, the Paranthropus boisei, could have used Oldowan techniques around 2.8 million years ago.

Another online link in Research Gate is the following (Kvemo Orozmani, Georgia: a new Lower Paleolithic archaeological site in the Southern Caucasus): A pdf with images, maps and little text. It has the same title, but seems like a presentation of the paper, not the paper itself. It includes the tooth, coprolites, and the tools. The following map is from this pdf.

Kvemo Orozmani and Dmanisi, Georgia map. From Bidzinashvili, G. et al. 2023.

It also includes images of their stone tools, which look very primitive, almost geofacts. Clearly Oldowan and not the Acehulean tools of H. erectus. As mentioned further up, Oldowan means primitive hominins, like H. habilis, Paranthroupus and also, some australopithecus. The image below is from the same 2023 paper.

Now we will have to wait for the publication on this 2025 jaw discovery and for the identification of the hominin that provided the tooth.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

On the origin of Homo Floresiensis, the "Hobbit"

I had imagined that the Flores Island small-bodied people descended from some ancient wave of Asians. My expectations were that they preceded H. erectus and were linked to the first people to leave Africa, H. georgicus or even H. habilis. Now we have some proof that they derive from Homo erectus.

A paper published ten years ago (Kaifu Y, Kono RT, Sutikna T, Saptomo EW, Jatmiko, Due Awe R (2015) Unique Dental Morphology of Homo floresiensis and Its Evolutionary Implications. PLoS ONE 10(11): e0141614. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141614) found that tooth morphology placed the hobbit closer to H. erectus than to modern sapiens or older hominins like habilis:

"This evidence contradicts the earlier claim of an entirely modern human-like dental morphology of H. floresiensis, while at the same time does not support the hypothesis that H. floresiensis originated from a much older H. habilis or Australopithecus-like small-brained hominin species currently unknown in the Asian fossil record. These results are however consistent with the alternative hypothesis that H. floresiensis derived from an earlier Asian Homo erectus population and experienced substantial body and brain size dwarfism in an isolated insular setting. The dentition of H. floresiensis is not a simple, scaled-down version of earlier hominins. "

A more recent paper (Kaifu, Y., Kurniawan, I., Mizushima, S. et al. Early evolution of small body size in Homo floresiensis. Nat Commun 15, 6381 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50649-7) published in August 2024 states thtat H. floresiensis descends from dwarfedH. erectus and not from older and less evolved ancestors like the Australopithecines or H. habilis. It reaches these conclusions after studying bone sizes and molar features. It also gives a timeline for their settling in Flores Island:

"Coupled with the recently revised arrival date for H. erectus on Java ( ~ 1.1 Ma, or at most younger than 1.3–1.5 Ma) and hominins on Flores (1.0–1.27 Ma), as well as the reported craniometric and odontometric analyzes which almost unanimously support strong affinities of H. floresiensis with H. erectus (particularly early H. erectus from Java), the following evolutionary model emerges. The earliest Flores hominins appeared on this Wallacean island ~1.0–1.27 Ma, probably unintentionally (i.e., through accidental ‘rafting’, perhaps on tsunami debris), and possibly as part of the initial colonization of the Sunda Shelf region by early H. erectus. The Flores hominins experienced substantial body size reduction soon after this event (within ~300,000 years), despite the presence of large-bodied predators such as ~3 meter-long Komodo monitors and crocodiles from the earliest paleontological record ( ~ 1.4 Ma) onwards6. This implies that giant reptilians did not represent a serious predation threat for early H. floresiensis or its progenitors. This early evolutionary event was followed by long-term stability in hominin body size, possibly also in cultural adaptations (e.g., stone technology), and minor morphological specialization in the dentition. How the small brain size reported for the ~60,000 years old LB11, evolved still remains unknown. At present, however, the available fossil data imply that small body size had been a functional adaptation for these insular hominins during and slightly beyond the Middle Pleistocene and indeed potentially up until the arrival of H. sapiens on Flores around 50,000 years ago; an event that, we suspect, precipitated the demise of H. floresiensis."

Perhaps the minute humans of Luzon share the same origin.

I doubt that these small people ever moved out of their islands, so there is no way that they could have reached the New World to inspire myths about dwarves. However, they could have left an imprint in the legends and tales of the Southeast Asians who came across them in the jungles of Sahul and Sundaland 50,000 years ago. Myths that were taken by humans and spread across the World.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Homo georgicus revisited: An ancient peopling of Eurasia

The first hominins to leave Africa were discovered in Georgia, in the Caucasus. A paper published in March 2025 suggests that not all the remains of found in the cave in Georgia belong to this Homo georgicus species, and tries to place these specimens on the hominin phylogenetic tree.

I have posted on H. georgicus in 2011 and 2019. But science advances and new discoveries arise so it is time to take another look at Georgicus.

Source: Where do the Dmanisi hominins fit on the human evolutionary tree? Debbie Argue, José María Bermúdez de Castro, Michael S. Y. Lee, Maria Martinón-Torres bioRxiv 2025.03.01.639363; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.01.639363

I quote part of their paper below.

"Conclusions
The Dmanisi hominins are often included in H. erectus or H. erectus s. l. /H. ergaster, notwithstanding that they are formally designated as Homo georgicus with D4500_D2600 as the holotype. In our phylogenetic analyses, none of the Dmanisi hominins form a sister taxon to either H. erectus or H. ergaster. We hypothesise that the Dmanisi hominins did not share a unique common ancestor with H. erectus or H. ergaster, and we cannot support their attribution to either of those species.
Although all the Dmanisi hominins are attributed to a single species, the morphological variation evident among them has prompted questions about their heterogeneity with discussion focusing on whether one species or two are represented. We approached this question using phylogenetic analyses and by exploring further lines of evidence. Although our phylogenetic analyses did not lead us to propose two species among the Dmanisi hominins, there are nevertheless morphologically significant differences in the cranium, mandible and dentition of the individual represented by D4500_D2600 and the other Dmanisi hominins that are consistent with the view that D4500_D2600 represents a separate species. These are the unique and perplexing pattern of sexual dimorphism evident in the endocranial capacities of the assemblage when considered as one species; the dichotomy in mandibular molar size sequences; and in the presence of both a primitive and a derived form in the mandibular structures among the assemblage. We also note that D4500_D2600, in terms of character distances, is more similar to other hominins, including H. floresiensis, than it is to the other Dmanisi individuals.
We propose that the most parsimonious hypothesis for the Dmanisi hominins is that two species are present among the assemblage: Homo georgicus comprising D4500_D2600 and an un-named species comprising the other Dmanisi hominins: D2280, D2282_D211, D2700_D2735 and D3444_ D3900. The alternative hypothesis, that the assemblage comprises a single species, requires substantial paradigm shifts in our definition of Homo.
We surmise that the first hominin species at Dmanisi was H. georgicus, and that the species was probably present by 1.8 Ma. The other hominins, D2280, D2282_D211, D2700_D2735 and D3444_ D3900, accumulated at some time or times during the reverse polarity of 1.07 Ma and 1.77 Ma.
The specific ages of D2280, D2282_D211, D2700_D2735 and D3444_ D3900, however, remain unknown. Dating of the volcanic ashes in which each hominin was recovered, together with dating the ashes in the overlying strata to find the minimum date for the hominins, would likely produce a more refined understanding of the chronology for the Dmanisi hominins."

The link to the Flores Island hobbit is interesting, and also the lack of relationship with H. erectus and H. ergaster. Who, as we see below are more recent. The phylogenetic trees in the paper suggest that H. georgicus is on a branch that split earlier from the one leading to H. habilis, H. erectus, H. ergaster, and H. sapiens. Pictured below

Fig 1. Tree H. georgicus and other hominins.

Ancient Hominins in Eurasia

Georgicus was the first early hominin to be discovered in Eurasia, and older than the H. erectus remains found in Indonesia and China. They were the first to venture out of Africa.

But Georgicus wasn't alone in Eurasia. There are many sites around 2 million years old. Some of them have hominin remains associated to them, others have tools or bones suggesting human action on them. See this paper published in Nature in January 2025 as an example. It includes the following image with ancient sites and what markers were used to identify hominin presence (Fig. 5). Note that the other "oldest" remains found are H. erectus, suggesting that Georgicus came first.

So, which ancient hominin left Africa? Was it H. georgicus if he appeared in Africa and migrated to the Caucasus, or even more primitive australopithecines that evolved into H. georgicus in Asia?

Ferring et al. (2011) suggested that Georgicus predates H. erectus in Africa: "Dmanisi's first occupations to shortly after 1.85 Ma and document repeated use of the site over the last half of the Olduvai subchron, 1.85–1.78 Ma. These discoveries show that the southern Caucasus was occupied repeatedly before Dmanisi's hominin fossil assemblage accumulated, strengthening the probability that this was part of a core area for the colonization of Eurasia. The secure age for Dmanisi's first occupations reveals that Eurasia was probably occupied before Homo erectus appears in the East African fossil record."

Argue et al. confirm it with their phylogenetic trees. Homo georgicus was not a subspecies of erectus, it was located on a branch that split from some common ancestor of Homo habilis and later H. erectus.

Did a back-migration into Africa of the Georgicus hominins lead to the appearance of H. habilis there? In that case it would be an In &: Out of Eurasia-Africa that led to more evolved hominins.

Further studies will provide additional information.

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