Origins of Indonesian hobbits finally revealed

[jpak]

https://phys.org/news/2017-04-indonesian-hobbits-revealed.html

The most comprehensive study on the bones of Homo floresiensis, a species of tiny human discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, has found that they most likely evolved from an ancestor in Africa and not from Homo erectus as has been widely believed.

The study by The Australian National University (ANU) found Homo floresiensis, dubbed "the hobbits" due to their small stature, were most likely a sister species of Homo habilis—one of the earliest known species of human found in Africa 1.75 million years ago.

Data from the study concluded there was no evidence for the popular theory that Homo floresiensis evolved from the much larger Homo erectus, the only other early hominid known to have lived in the region with fossils discovered on the Indonesian mainland of Java.

Study leader Dr Debbie Argue of the ANU School of Archaeology & Anthropology, said the results should help put to rest a debate that has been hotly contested ever since Homo floresiensis was discovered.

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[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Which would mean 3 separate species of Homo left Africa for Asia

Floresiensis or a non-erectus ancestor of it (the possible 'sister species' of habilis); erectus; and sapiens. Or that a species ancestral to both erectus and floresiensis left, but there has been no trace found of it yet.

[jpak]

2. Our family tree is most awesome

yup

[AngryAmish]

3. 5 at least

Florensis, Denisovan, homo homo, Neanderthal, erectus...And a few I cannot remember.

Personally, I do not buy Florensis as it's own species. The DNA will tell.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Denisovan and Neanderthal are normally classed as subspecies of sapiens

especially since they interbred.

If you don't think floriensis is its own species, what species do you think it's part of? Habilis?

[AngryAmish]

7. Saying anything in human evolution in the last ten years is normal is a misstated

The genetics is moving so fast I would wait a few more years before I made any claim for certainty.

One thing we do know is the anthropologists have been wrong for a generation or two.

[jpak]

5. Unfortunately, researchers have failed to extract any usable DNA from H. floresiensis

But i wish....

[L. Coyote]

6. If we had evolved during a tropical regime instead of an ice age, we might all be like this,

much smaller and still a lot like our deeper ancestors due to less founder effects and very different fitness selection criteria.

[AngryAmish]

8. If my aunt had wheels...

We evolved. Various populations had various selection pressures. Founder effects persist. Thus, I cannot live in Tibet.