Learn more about this course.

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

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.

photograph of partial skeleton of Homo floresiensis before completely excavated 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 ).