Check out these two interesting hominin posts

John Hawks on John Hawks Weblog wrote about the undiscovered hominin from Denisova, Siberia. He cautions the usage of "species" when describing this individual as it is too soon to say whether the individual is indeed a distinct species.

On SEAArch, Noel Hidalgo Tan wrote about stone tools found in Flores, Indonesia that dates back to about a million years ago. It is still inconclusive whether these tools belong to the "hobbits" or Homo erectus. 

A range of stone flakes were found (scale-bar: 10mm). Photo from BBC News.

Hobbits Are Indeed A Separate Species, Said Researchers.

 Researchers from Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York confirmed that the Hobbits, or Homo floresiensis, are indeed a separate "human" species instead of a population of diseases Homo sapiens. The 7th Human Evolution Symposium, Hobbits in the Haystack: Homo floresiensis and Human Evolution was held this year at Stony Brook.

A recent full-body reconstruction of LB1, the ‘little lady of Flores’, by the Parisian paleoartist Elisabeth Daynès. (©2009, S. Plailly/E. Daynès—Reconstruction Atelier Daynès Paris). Photo from The geometry of hobbits: Homo floresiensis and human evolution.

Cranial comparison between LB1 (Homo floresiensis) and modern human. Photo from www.bbc.co.uk

Height comparison between modern humans and Homo floresiensis. Illustration from www.amnh.org

According to the press release, researchers William Jungers and Karen Baab used statistical analysis on the skeletal remains of LB1 (nicknamed Flo) to determine that Homo floresiensis are indeed a distinct species. A few characteristics of LB1 that makes her and her kind a separate species than modern humans.

• LB1's cranial capacity is about 400cc, about the same size as a chimpanzee.
• The skull and jawbone of LB1 is more primitive looking than any normal modern humans.
• The thigh bone and shin bone of LB1are much shorter compared to modern humans including Central African pygmies, South African KhoeSan (formerly known as 'bushmen") and "negrito" pygmies from the Andaman Islands and the Philippines. Jungers and Baab believe that these are primitive retentions as opposed to island dwarfing.
• Using a regression equation developed by Jungers, LB1 was about 3 feet, 6 inches (106cm) tall, far smaller than modern human pygmies whose adults grow to less than 4 feet, 11 inches (150cm) tall.

The nearly complete left foot of LB1 next to the right tibia (shin bone, which is ~235 mm long). The foot is relatively very long and has unusual intrinsic proportions; its footprint matches no other species (photo: W. Jungers) The geometry of hobbits: Homo floresiensis and human evolution.

Read more about the Hobbits at The geometry of hobbits: Homo floresiensis and human evolution (Free Wiley Interscience PDF).

Hobbits Might Not Be A Homo After All

The controversies over the hobbits or Homo floresiensis just refuse to end. It seems that the hobbits might not be a Homo after all. I guess they found the index and ring fingers of the hobbits (Sorry, inside joke. Read this post if you want).

 Homo floresiensis (LB1) skull. Photo from Science Museum.

Homo floresiensis, LB1, skull (left) and human skull (right). Photo from BBC.

Anyway, Peter Brown from the University of New England who first described Homo floresiensis said that he is considering of stripping the hobbits from the genus Homo. Brown and his colleague, Tomoko Maeda, said that the Homo floresiensis lineage possibly left Africa before the evolution of the genus Homo. Their paper had been accepted and will be published in an upcoming special Homo floresiensis edition of the Journal of Human Evolution.

I can't wait for the paper to come out. In the meantime, you can read this article from The Australian.

Hobbit in the Haystack: Homo floresiensis and Human Evolution - Watch it Online!

Earlier this year, I've blogged about the 2009 Human Evolution Leakey Symposium at Stony Brook that I went to. For more about that blog post, click here.

The symposium, entitled "Hobbit in the Haystack: Homo floresiensis and Human Evolution" can now be streamed live through the Stony Brook website. The website also includes previous Human Evolution Leakey symposia. Click here to watch.

Thanks to Afarensis: Anthropology, Evolution and Science for the heads up!

Homo floresiensis Walked Out of Africa

Skull of LB1 (Homo floresiensis, or the hobbit). Photo from Science Museum

New analysis by a team led by Australian National University doctoral student Debbie Argue showed that Homo floresiensis, nicknamed hobbits, were early hominin and walked out of Africa to Flores. Their findings supports the argument that Homo floresiensis had a unique wrist anatomy that originated from a lineage that lived long before the common ancestor of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

With Mike Moorwood from University of Wollongong and Thomas Sutikna from Indonesian Center for Archaeology, Debbie Argue compared 60 skulls and skeletal features from two individual hobbits to those of hominins, chimpanzees and gorillas using cladistic analysis. The result shows that Homo floresiensis "probably took one of two evolutionary paths from Africa to Flores. One began 1.66 million years ago, the other 1.9 million years ago".

Read more here: Hobbits Walked Out of Africa

Hobbits In The Haystack: Homo floresiensis And Human Evolution

The 7th Human Evolution Symposium, Hobbits in the Haystack: Homo floresiensis and Human Evolution was held yesterday at Stony Brook. Turnouts were great despite damp and rainy weather. Convened by Richard Leakey, the symposium was an all day event where researchers share their findings on Homo floresiensis. The highlight of the symposium is the first ever complete cast of LB1, or Flo and a host of Homo floresiensis researchers.

The symposium ended with questions and issues for discussion by Richard Leakey. Then, the floor was opened for general Q&A session with the panel. I will write about each presentations tomorrow, I'm currently swamped with school work!

"Accepting it (Homo floresiensis) will require us to rewrite the textbooks." - William Jungers, Stony Brook University.

Here is a list of topic presented by speakers during the symposium:

"Hobbits in context: life, times and death of Homo floresiensis" by Michael J. Morwood, University of Wollongong, Australia.

"Digging up Hobbits: The Excavations at Liang Bua" by Thomas Sutikna, National Research and Development Centre for Archaeology, Indonesia.

"Stone Tools and Hominins on Flores" by Mark Moore, University of New England, Australia.

"Whence Homo floresiensis? Clues from the brain." by Dean Falk, Florida State University.

"Her Teeth Were Sharp, Her Gums Were Raw, and Spit Was Dripping From Her Jaw: The Little Things That Make Us Human" by Peter Brown, University of New England, Australia.

"Why the Tiny Wrist Bones of a Hobbit Tell Us So Much About a Big Chapter in Human Evolutionary Theory" by Matthew Tocheri, Smithsonian Institution.

"The Hobbit Shrugged: The Shoulder of Homo floresiensis and its Implications For Human Evolution." by Susan Larson, Stony Brook University.

"Can Island Dwarfing Explain Hobbit Body Size and Shape?" by William Jungers, Stony Brook University.

"Virtual Hobbits and Health in Homo floresiensis" by Charles Hildebolt, Washington University in St. Louis.

A list of what Richard Leakey commented and asked during the symposium:

We should be careful when using Lucy as model for comparison because Lucy is not representative of the genus Australopithecine in general.

We don't have Homo erectus feet in our fossil record. The fossilized foot prints that were found in Ileret, Kenya has been suggested that it was left behind by Homo ergaster, an earlier version of Homo erectus.

There should be more discussion on the types of dating methods used on Homo floresiensis and the artifacts found in association with it.

There should be more discussion and research to link lithic materials to the Hobbits, or Homo floresiensis.

What were the geographic isolation of Flore? How did the Hobbits ended up in Flores?

Were there large carnivores in Flores or lack thereof? Hobbits have ape-like feet that were built for walking but not for running. Did they survive despite that because they have no need for speed to get away from predators?

First Ever Casts Of Homo Floresiensis To Be Unveiled At Stony Brook University

Photo from Science Museum

Apparently, the first ever casts of Homo floresiensis or "Hobbit" will be unveiled at the 7th Annual Human Evolution Symposium at Stony Brook University on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 courtesy of the National Research and Development Center for Archaeology in Jakarta, Indonesia. This symposium will be convened by Richard Leakey, famous paleoanthropologist and Anthropology professor of Stony Brooks. “Hobbits in the Haystack: Homo floresiensis and Human Evolution,” is hosted by the Turkana Basin Institute at Stony Brook.

Click here for the press release from Stony Brook. This all-day symposium is open to the public. Check website for ticket pricing and questions. I HAVE to be there ...

Homo Floresiensis: Hobbits of Southeast Asia

What is Homo floresiensis? This question has plagued scientists since the 2003 discovery of these hominids in the remote island of Flores, Indonesia. A few specimens, found only inside the cave of Liang Bua in Flores, were given the names LB1, LB2 and so on. Their small stature, thought to be no taller than a three-year-old human child, led to them being nicknamed “Hobbits” by scientists after J.R.R. Tolkien's tiny “Lord of The Rings” characters. Homo floresiensis is thought to have co-existed with modern humans starting from about 18,000 years ago to about 13,000 years ago -- pretty recent in geological time. What Is The Hobbit?

Height comparison between Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo floresiensis. Illustration from www.amnh.org

Cranial comparison between LB1 (Homo floresiensis) and modern human. Photo from www.bbc.co.uk

A recent article suggests that Homo floresiensis existed alongside modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens). If Homo floresiensis were indeed contemporaneous to modern humans, then they could have been the sourceof local myths such as the “Ebu Gogo” and “Orang Pendek”. Cryptozoology and mythology aside, scientists are still debating whether Homo floresiensis is a species of its own or just a small population of Homo sapiens sapiens that suffered from cretinism.

Putting a face to the hobbit (Facial reconstruction from LB1 cranial). Photo from www.blogs.discovermagazine.com

So who really were Homo floresiensis? A species of their own or just individuals that suffered from cretinism? We still do not know.

If Homo floresiensis were indeed a species of their own, did they evolve out of Austrolopithecine, Homo erectus or even archaic Homo sapiens?

If Homo floresiensis were actually archaic Homo sapiens suffering from cretinism, how did they survive well pass adulthood and use stone tools to hunt?

Currently there is no consensus whether Homo floresiensis were a separate species or just individuals who suffered from cretinism. What do you think?