binomial_authority = P. Brown et al., 2004

Homo floresiensis ("Man of Flores") is the proposed name for a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body, small brain, and survival until relatively recent times. It is thought to have been contemporaneous with modern humans (Homo sapiens) on the Indonesian island of Flores. One sub-fossil skeleton, dated at 18,000 years old, is largely complete. It was discovered in deposits in Liang Bua Cave on Flores in 2003. Parts of eight other individuals, all diminutive, have been recovered as well as similarly small stone tools from horizons ranging from 94,000 to 13,000 years ago. The first of these fossils was unearthed in 2003; the publication date of the original description is October 2004; and confirmation of species status was expected to appear in March 2005, following publication of details of the brain of Flores Man. However, primatologist Robert Martin of the Field Museum in Chicago published an article in Science theorizing that the original specimen does not represent a new species, but is a modern Homo sapiens with microcephaly.

Flores has been described (in the journal Nature) as "a kind of Lost World", where archaic animals, elsewhere long extinct, had evolved into giant and dwarf forms through allopatric speciation, due to its location East of the Wallace Line. The island had dwarf elephants (a species of Stegodon, a prehistoric elephant) and giant monitor lizards akin to the Komodo dragon, as well as H. floresiensis, which can be considered a species of diminutive human.

The discoverers have called members of the diminutive species "hobbits", after J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional race of roughly the same height. In the mythology of the island, there were common references to small furry people called Ebu Gogo even into the 19th century.

Discovery

The first

Similarly, on the island of Sumatra, there are reports of a one-metre tall humanoid, the Orang Pendek, which a number of professional scholars take seriously. Both footprints and hairs have been recovered. Scholars working on the Flores Man have noted that the Orang Pendek may also be surviving Flores men still living on Sumatra.

To be sure, any mystical reports of "little people" should be taken with the standard amount of skepticism, as they are common across many diverse cultures (see chupacabra, gnomes, etc.). It is of note, however, that such stories often ascribe to the creatures outwardly appearance and/or magic abilities. In the case of Ebu Gogo, the subject of the stories are described as having humanoid and primate characteristics, a below-par intelligence, and limited language skills. They posses no magical abilities and no mythical significance.

Significance

The discovery is widely considered the most important of its kind in recent history, and came as a surprise to the anthropological community. The new species challenges many of the ideas of the discipline.

Homo floresiensis is so different in form from other members of genus Homo that it forces the recognition of a new, undreamt-of variability in the genus, and provides evidence against linear evolution.

No doubt, this discovery provides more fuel for the perennial debate over the out-of-Africa or multiregional models of speciation of modern humans (despite H. floresiensis not itself being an ancestor of modern humans). Already, further arguments have been made on either side.

The discoverers of H. floresiensis fully expect to find the remains of other, equally divergent Homo species on other isolated islands of Southeast Asia, and think it possible, if not quite "likely", that some lost Homo species could be found still living in some unexplored corner of jungle.

Henry Gee, a senior editor of the journal Nature, has agreed, saying, "Of course it could explain all kinds of legends of the little people. They are almost certainly extinct, but it is possible that there are creatures like this around today. Large mammals are still being found. I don't think the likelihood of finding a new species of human alive is any less than finding a new species of antelope, and that has happened" [1].

Gee has also written that "The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures such as Yetis are founded on grains of truth.… Now, cryptozoology, the study of such fabulous creatures, can come in from the cold"[2].

An alternative suggestion is that Homo floresiensis was actually a rainforest-adapted type of modern Homo sapiens, like Pygmies and Negritos, only of a more extreme type. [3][4]

Reaction

When the first skull (that of 'Flo') was found, the first assumption was that it was a child. When it turned out to be a grown individual (closed fontanelles and worn teeth), it was thought to be microcephalic, but that theory has been refuted by a subsequent detailed scan of the skull. And comparisons with modern human achondroplasiacs (about 1.2 m, or 3 ft 11 in) or other dwarfs, are also flawed, as these people are not generally proportionally smaller than other humans, only short-limbed.

Professor Teuku Jacob, chief paleontologist of the Indonesian Gadjah Mada University and other scientists reportedly disagree with the placement of the new finds into a new species of Homo, stating instead, "It is a sub-species of Homo sapiens classified under the Austrolomelanesid race". He contends that the find is from a 25–30 year-old omnivorous subspecies of H. sapiens, and not a 30-year-old female of a new species. He is convinced that the small skull is that of a mentally defective modern human, probably a Pygmy, suffering from the genetic disorder microcephaly or nanocephaly (now discounted). Similar dismissive arguments were made regarding the discovery of Neanderthals in 1856. Neanderthals were also considered examples of diseased or mentally deficient modern humans, but this was proven incorrect.

Some scientists reportedly believe the skeleton found may be of a male and not a female.

When interviewed on the Australian television program Lateline, Professor Roberts reportedly conceded that the skeleton may be that of a male rather than a female but he strenuously maintained the fossil is of a new species. A paper published in Science disputes the microcephaly theory.

Access controversy

In late November and early December 2004, in an apparent arrangement with discoverer Radien Soejono, Professor Jacob borrowed most of the remains from Soejono's institution, Jakarta's National Research Centre of Archaeology, for his own research (apparently without the permission of the Centre's directors [5], [6], [7], [8]). Some expressed fears that, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, important scientific evidence would be sequestered by a small group of scientists who neither allowed access by other scientists nor published their own research. However, Jacob returned the remains to the Centre, except for two leg bones, on 23 February, 2005 [9].

A new species?

Whether the specimens represent a new species is a controversial issue within the scientific community.

In 2005, a computer-generated model of the skull of Homo floresiensis provided further support that the controversial specimens from Indonesia do indeed represent a new species. The study of the creature's brainpan showed that it was neither a pygmy nor an individual with a malformed skull and brain, as some critics contend, lending support to the discovery team's assertion that the metre-tall specimen belongs to a species distinct from Homo erectus. These results continued to be debated in the journal (see links from reference).

The controversy is still not resolved. In the May 19, 2006, issue of the journal Science, however, Robert D. Martin of the Field Museum in Chicago and some co-authors argued that the fossil of Homo floresiensis appears to be that of a modern human with microencephaly, a disorder resulting in a small brain and other defects. Martin argued that the brain is far too small to be a separate dwarf species; if it were, he wrote, the 400-cubic-centimeter brain would indicate a creature only one foot in height, which would be one-third the size of the discovered skeleton. " 'Hobbit' Bones Said to Be of Deformed Human". Los Angeles Times, Saturday, May 20, 2006.

References

Homo floresiensis was first described in two papers which appeared in the journal Nature, a year after the discovery:
* Brown, P., et al. A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Nature 431:1055-1061 (October 27 2004). [10]
* Morwood, M. J., et al. Archaeology and age of a new hominin from Flores in eastern Indonesia. Nature 431:1087-1091 (October 27, 2004). [11]
* Kate Wong. The littlest human. Scientific American February 2005: 40-49 [12]

Notes

External links

* Press release from University of New England, Australia, where Profs. Morwood and Brown are Associate Professors.

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