“It is the foundation of our religion, our ethics and even our science that humanity has been isolated, is a single species, and has been for a very long time. This find challenges that. It is a remarkable fact that it is only at this moment, in 7m years, that there is only one species of human on the planet.”
– Bert Roberts, the University of Wollongong in New South Wales
Australian and Indonesian scientists have identified a new and completely unexpected species of human. It was only a metre high, had a small brain but a distinctly human face. It made delicate stone tools and it shared the planet with Homo sapiens at least 18,000 years ago.