Home / History / Ancient History / Homo Floresiensis Uncovered: The Science of ‘the Hobbit’ / It’s human…
It’s human…
When a team of Indonesian archaeologists stumbled upon the skeletal remains of Homo floresiensis they were sure that they were human bones
The discovery of Homo floresiensis was not without controversy. Scientists still continue to debate the validity of the find. When the rock was observed that way just exposed on the– from brow and also the teeth, but not exposed all of them. Then the first time rock was cast as 200 000 years old and hominin. But we were still not sure if it was a child. But after a couple of days, we were be able to remove all the dirt in the teeth. All of us were very, very surprised because it was an adult human. But it predates human existence in this part of the world, casting shadows on many long held assumptions about the origins of our species.
The pace of paleoanthropology, or the study of human evolution, has really increased exponentially. There are new fossils found across Africa, across Eurasia, and into Southeast Asia that are really increasing our samples for understanding human diversity in the past. Prior to some of these discoveries it was typically thought that, OK, early Homo erectus left Africa, made it to China and Indonesia, and was basically widespread from Asia all through– and through Africa. But now with a discovery such as Homo floresiensis, it really tells us that there’s a lot more out there that we just haven’t found yet.
And that we’re likely going to continue to find more diversity, likely more species, and a more complicated evolutionary history for the species that are most closely related to us.
When the team of Indonesian archaeologists stumbled upon the skeletal remains of Homo floresiensis they were sure that they were human bones. However, they had doubted that they belonged to an adult and speculated that they may be the bones of a human child.
The partial skeleton of Homo floresiensis before it was lifted (Photo: © Liang Bua Team/ARKENAS)
These doubts were dispelled after removing dirt from the teeth.
“…we were still not sure if it was a child. But after a couple of days, we were able to remove all the dirt in the teeth. All of us were very, very surprised because it was an adult human” (Thomas Sutikna, archaeologist)
The find is particularly fascinating as it predates the known existence of primitive hominins in this part of the world, casting shadows on many long-held assumptions about human evolution. Previously, it had been a commonly-held assumption that early Homo erectus left Africa, made it to China and western Indonesia, and was widespread through Asia.
“…with a discovery such as Homo floresiensis, it really tells us that there’s a lot more out there that we just haven’t found yet. And that we’re likely going to continue to find more diversity, likely more species, and a more complicated evolutionary history for the species that are most closely related to us” ( Matt Tocheri, palaeoanthropologist ).
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Homo Floresiensis Uncovered: The Science of ‘the Hobbit’
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Homo Floresiensis Uncovered: The Science of ‘the Hobbit’
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