Lost Continent with Human Bones Discovered Under the Sea

Bright Side

A lost continent hidden beneath the sea has been discovered — and scientists even found human bones there. In this video, we explore where this sunken land is, how it disappeared underwater, and why the discovery shocked researchers. We’ll break down what the bones mean, how old they are, and what they reveal about ancient humans. This isn’t a myth or a legend — it’s real science coming together piece by piece. If underwater mysteries and lost worlds fascinate you, this one is impossible to ignore. 🌊🗺️  Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00It started as a routine cleaning to scoop some mud off the coast of Indonesia,

00:04but turned into a discovery of remnants of a lost, submerged Ice Age landmass.

00:10Archaeologists found more than 6,000 fossil fragments,

00:13and among them, 140,000-year-old Homo erectus remains.

00:17This find made scientists rethink how early humans lived,

00:21moved, and interacted in Southeast Asia.

00:23For years, they thought that Homo erectus on Java Island lived in isolation,

00:31separated from the rest of the world, but these dredged fossils blew that story apart.

00:36It turns out, Java wasn't an island at all back then, but part of a landmass called Sundaland.

00:43So, Southeast Asia stretched out like someone had drained the ocean,

00:46connecting Indonesia, Malaysia, Borneo, Thailand, and Vietnam into one gigantic landscape.

00:52Today's islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Bali were connected by river systems

00:57that probably looked like the Amazon, by forests where giant animals roamed,

01:02and by coastal plains that would later sink beneath the ocean when temperatures went up.

01:08And Homo erectus were not stuck.

01:10They were thriving in what honestly sounds like prehistoric bliss.

01:15Yep, it was nothing like we normally imagine Ice Age, a sort of frozen wasteland.

01:20Sea levels dropped more than 400 feet because so much water froze into glaciers.

01:26When all that water got locked up in ice,

01:28whole sections of the ocean floor popped out of the water like stepping stones.

01:33Suddenly, early humans didn't need boats.

01:36They could literally walk from what's now mainland Southeast Asia

01:39all the way to places that are islands today.

01:42They could do it while exploring and chasing herds across open land.

01:46It was sort of like a giant prehistoric highway system.

01:51That giant highway matters because it completely rewrites how early humans moved around.

01:57Instead of being trapped, Homo erectus had a whole continent to roam.

02:02They followed rivers, crossed valleys, and adapted to different environments

02:06the same way you learn shortcuts to the office or find new routes to your favorite coffee shop.

02:11And because everything was connected, animals wandered freely too.

02:16Tigers, elephants, super-sized cows, and turtles the size of small cars.

02:21People followed these big animals.

02:24This among the fossils pulled from the Madura Strait,

02:26such as cut-marked turtle shells and cracked open bovid bones.

02:31When you see precise cut marks on bone,

02:33it means someone was deliberately carving meat off the bone with tools they made themselves.

02:38And cracked bones mean they were taking out marrow,

02:42which was like prehistoric energy gel.

02:45Rich, fatty, and perfect when you need calories to survive.

02:49That's a level of planning and skill scientists didn't expect from Homo erectus.

02:53It pushes Homo erectus closer to species like early Homo sapiens and Denisovans when it comes to behavior.

03:00It means they weren't just surviving on scraps.

03:02They were actively pursuing animals, processing, and maybe even sharing food the same way later humans did.

03:09So, if you imagine them as slow, hunched cavemen, forget that.

03:14These people were sharp.

03:16The techniques they used to process food look eerily similar to those used by other hominids.

03:21Not just Homo erectus.

03:23We're talking Homo florenciensis, Denisovans, and early Homo sapiens.

03:27That opens the door to the possibility that these groups didn't just exist side by side.

03:33They might have interacted.

03:35Maybe they traded ideas and copied techniques.

03:38Or maybe they even interbred or shared territories.

03:42All this makes Southeast Asia look not like a series of isolated islands,

03:47but like a buzzing human ecosystem.

03:49A place where different human species crossed paths.

03:53And here's the heartbreaking part.

03:55Everything we know about this place, everything humans built, lost, and discovered there,

04:01is all underwater now.

04:04When the Ice Age ended,

04:05When the Ice Age ended, glaciers melted like forgotten ice cream cones on a hot sidewalk.

04:10Sea levels rose.

04:12Slowly, then quickly.

04:14Rivers flooded.

04:15Coastlines vanished.

04:16Entire human landscapes disappeared beneath the waves.

04:20Sundaland drowned over thousands of years,

04:23and the people who lived there either adapted or moved to higher ground.

04:28Archaeologists now try to interpret what these people did,

04:31how they lived,

04:32and how many human species walked that land.

04:35Every time they pull together bone or artifact from the seabed,

04:39we get one step closer to rewriting everything we thought we knew about early human migration.

04:44And the new discovery could mean that Southeast Asia may have been just as important to human evolution

04:50as Africa, the Middle East, or Europe.

04:54Looks like Sundaland wasn't a side quest, but a real mixing zone.

04:58A place where humanity experimented, adapted, learned, and evolved.

05:04Unexpected finds like this one in Indonesia keep popping up around the world,

05:08and surprising scientists.

05:09Farmers in China were hoping to scoop up bat droppings for natural fertilizers inside a narrow limestone cave.

05:17But instead, they spotted pieces of fossilized bone that looked suspiciously like parts of a human skull.

05:24This skull turned out to be ridiculously old, around 300,000 years old.

05:30Scientists eventually named the fossil Maba 1.

05:34The discovery happened way back in 1958,

05:36but ever since then, nobody could agree on which ancient human species this skull belonged to.

05:43During the late Middle Pleistocene,

05:45the world was basically a crowded highway of different ancient human species wandering around.

05:50Or just maybe, Maba 1 came from a species we've never met before.

05:55The big issue was that researchers only found part of the skull.

05:59No jaw, no other bones.

06:01So it was like trying to solve a giant puzzle with half the pieces missing.

06:04For ages, scientists guessed it might be Neanderthal.

06:09But now, they've used micro-CT scanning,

06:12which is like an x-ray superpower that lets you peek inside fossils without breaking them.

06:17That's when they noticed weird tube-like structures connecting parts of the brain case,

06:22something Neanderthals basically never had.

06:25The inside shape of the skull looked way more like Homo erectus,

06:29a much older human species.

06:31But even that wasn't a perfect match.

06:34The skull's size and shape were closer to modern humans and Neanderthals,

06:38and it showed traits Homo erectus usually didn't have.

06:42For example, it had a shorter forehead area and a thickened bregma,

06:46the meeting point between two skull bones.

06:49Maba 1 also had a strange dent on the forehead,

06:51almost like a bruise frozen in time.

06:55Whatever caused it, maybe a fall, maybe anemia,

06:58it happened while the person was alive.

07:00But there was no sign of infection,

07:02so that individual probably healed and kept living after whatever hit them.

07:08So Maba 1 doesn't match any known species perfectly,

07:11but it shares features with several,

07:13and has a similar mystery fossil vibe as others found across Africa.

07:17In 1976, a famous paleontologist and her team found another human-like skull in Tanzania.

07:25That skull had features that looked surprisingly similar to Homo sapiens,

07:28even though it was unbelievably old.

07:32Scientists think it may be one of the earliest examples of our species ever discovered.

07:37That means this skull could help solve one of science's biggest questions.

07:40When exactly did Homo sapiens first show up?

07:44The sediment layer where that skull was found goes all the way back to the middle Pleistocene.

07:50That's way earlier than what old textbooks used to claim about when modern humans appeared.

07:56And then there's the skull that turned up in Zambia's broken hill or mine.

08:01Miners literally stumbled on it, plus a few other bones, completely by accident.

08:06Scientists started calling it Rhodesian Man.

08:09And at first, everyone thought it might be the big missing link between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens.

08:15But with newer research tools and better dating methods,

08:17they discovered it's around 299,000 years old,

08:22and probably belonged to someone from the species Homo heidelbergensis.

08:26Every new fossil acts like a missing puzzle piece on the giant chaotic story of human evolution.

08:32Each one helps scientists connect species that once seemed unrelated,

08:37redraw family trees,

08:38and rewrite chapters of our past we didn't even know were wrong.

08:42That's it for today.

08:43So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,

08:45then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

08:48Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side.

08:52Let's open the phone.

09:16Let's decide.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended