The Lost Forest
Page 62
Chapter 61
THE PRESS CONFERENCE
In a statement issued by the scientific review Nature, which reported the discovery in its July issue, anthropology professor Lundy of Museum of Man said the new find ‘will have the effect of an atomic bomb in anthropological circles.’
‘One of the most important things this skull tells us is how much we don’t know,’ he had said in a phone interview. ‘It suggests that diverse hominids had survived until historical times.’
Lundy when he first saw the skull, like some other observers, said he was particularly intrigued by the unusual mix of both primitive and advanced traits.
‘What’s most astonishing is that the general features are like those that we see in Homo erectus but attenuated to a point that they approach early Homo sapiens. It is more Homo than erectus,’ he said.
‘So, is the new skull fossil a hominid—perhaps one of our ancestor?’
‘Certainly not!’
Lundy presented the fossils, a partial skull cap, two teeth and a femur to the press.
‘We have compared the skull with the fossils of many other known hominids from nearby Java. Based on characteristics such as the tooth type and the thickness of the enamel, the shape and positioning of the head, and the facial features, we have concluded that the creature represented a new genus and species of hominid.’
He announced the officially name of Homo borneensis, after the Island of Borneo, avoiding the politically sensitive names Kalimantan or Sarawak and hoping to assuage Malaysian sensibilities.
Since the skull had been found it had been kept secret until after the findings underwent scientific review. But rumours and hazy news reports about the discovery in European newspapers set off a buzz of excitement in the scientific community.
Nonetheless, he told them that the skull found in Borneo stood apart as remarkable for a sole and unique reason - its young age.
‘It’s the only complete skull of this species that we have for the present,’ he said. ‘Naturally we are hoping to find others.’
A murmur of excitement spread through the room. A renowned anthropologist from the British Museum and its Department of Human Origins shouted ‘charlatan’; his theories and life work had been destroyed by the discovery.
Was the history of Rift Valley that had long been regarded as the cradle of humanity, because of the abundant hominid fossils recovered there, about to be turned upside down
‘This incredible discovery makes us realize how limited a view we have of human evolution because until now we’ve concentrated on East Africa,’ he said.
Despite the detailed analysis and published claims, the question of identity remained open-ended. Was it actually a new hominid, or a variation of some other previously identified species, or perhaps even an ape?
Some observers had suggested it may be a female orang-utan.
A leading British anthropologist said such questions in the world of palaeontology were always complex as evidence was usually incomplete and there was little agreement amongst scientists about what key features characterize a distinct human ancestor. “We each have a favourite model of what identifies early members of the human line - it’s a question of interpretation,” he said. “This creature is not our missing ancestor, but it could redraw the human line of evolution. But I think we can safely say that it’s a human cousin.”
Lundy and his colleagues argued that the age and primitive anatomical features of Homo borneensis suggested it could be closely linked to the last common ancestor of modern humans.”
A young journalist raised his hand to ask a question.
‘Yes,’ said Lundy pointing at him.
‘I understand that you have extracted samples of DNA?’
‘That’s correct.’
‘What does this show?’
He had patiently waited for this moment and announced the results of the Molecular and DNA analysis, which showed the close relationship between Homo borneensis and Homo sapiens and which was distinct from the only other DNA in ancient hominids, the Neanderthals.
‘This new “fossil” discovery is different from but at the same time closer than we could have ever imagined to modern humans. The skull is three thousand years old, and how he related to Homo sapiens as a contemporary remains to be discovered. But with our discovery, we have the beginnings of new knowledge. This is nearer to the end than the beginning of our knowledge of the human lineage.’
In his view, the chief significance of Homo borneensis was not the issue of whether it was a human ancestor, but the unsuspected diversity of ancient hominids in recent times. ‘One of the real surprises,’ he said, ‘is what an extraordinary mix of anatomy of our only modern contemporary, because that is what it is.’