0
Researchers from the Australian National University carried out the world's most comprehensive study on the bones of the Flores people and found that they most likely evolved at the same time as Homo habilis. The researchers found that many parts of the body indicated that Homo floresiensis was more primitive than previously thought. The findings cast doubt on the widely held assumption that the islanders evolved from Homo erectus, a more modern species of human that once occupied Asia.
Homo floresiensis stood at just 3ft tall and lived on the Indonesian island Flores
Primitive humans did not evolve from Homo erectus as previously believed
Instead the tiny island dwellers evolved at the same time as Homo habilis
An artist used fossils to create a detailed 3D reconstruction of a Flores woman
Homo habilis is one of the earliest species of human, which lived in Africa roughly 2.1 to 1.5 million years ago.
The findings cast doubt on the widely held assumption that the islanders evolved from Homo erectus, a more modern species of human.
The new discovery means that the Flores island people evolved hundreds of thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
Homo floresiensis (pictured) is a primitive human species that stood at just 3ft (0.9 metres) tall. Pictured is an artist's reconstruction of the species
HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN THE HOBBITS EVOLVED?
An artist used information from fossiled remains to create a detailed 3D reconstruction of a Flores woman
'In fact, we can say that these two species are most likely to have shared a unique common ancestor that was not shared with any other species in our analysis.'Arms and legs: 'It's got relatively short legs that make the arms appear long,' she said.
'Not as long as, say, a chimpanzee, but way outside the range of modern humans.'
Feet: 'It's got long feet compared to the length of the legs,' Dr Argue said.
'Even though they were such short, one-metre tall beings.
'Again, this is way outside the range we see in modern humans.'
Shoulders: 'Its shoulders are shrugged and face forward,' she said.
Skull: Dr Argue said: 'The skull is low, widest around the level of the ears; and it has a sloping forehead.
'It has a mound of bone in the eyebrow area that extends around the outside of the eye area.
'It has no chin. Instead the jaw slopes backwards.'
Pelvis: 'The pelvis is like that of Australopithecus afarensis,' she said. A. afarensis is an human-like ape that lived 3.9 million years ago.
Dr Argue said none of the data supported the theory that Homo floresiensis evolved from Homo erectus.
'We looked at whether Homo floresiensis could be descended from Homo erectus,' she said.
'We found that if you try and link them on the family tree, you get a very unsupported result.
'All the tests say it doesn't fit - it's just not a viable theory.'
Homo floresiensis is known to have lived on Flores until as recently as 54,000 years ago.
The study suggests that the island dwellers may have lived undisturbed in Indonesia for more than one million years.
Dr Argue said: 'Now to me this is one of the most amazing aspects of H. floresiensis.
'It existed at least between around 60,000 and 100,000 years ago on Flores, Indonesia.
'H. habilis, its closest relative, however, lived in Africa from around 1.75 million years ago till one million years ago.
'It has no chin. Instead the jaw slopes backwards.'
She added the shape of the skull suggested that the tiny people had small brains and may not have been intelligent as other Hominin species.
But there is evidence that the primitive people had well developed frontal lobes, the part of the brain associated with more complex human behaviours.
'We studied scans of the imprint of the brain inside the H. floresiensis skull,' Dr Argue said.
'We found that H. floresiensis had a highly developed frontal lobe.
'This is the part of the brain that helps us plan, pass information from generation to generation, and learn from mistakes.'
Her study also sheds light on why the Flores people were so small.
Scientists once believed that the Flores people were deformed modern humans, affected by a condition similar to dwarfism.
But the new study suggests that the people may have been small because they evolved before H. erectus, which was the first hominin to grow tall.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...orm-human.html
Bookmarks