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Indonesia's Flores 'hobbits’ may be the earliest human species to have left Africa 1.75 million years ago Homo floresiensis stood at just 3ft tall and lived on the Indonesian island Flores Primitive humans did not evolve from Homo erectus as previously believed Instead the tiny island dwellers evolved at the same time as Homo habilis An artist used fossils to create a detailed 3D reconstruction of a Flores woman
Mena: the 3ft tall Homo floresiensis remind me of the short stature Twa people of the Congolese jungle of central Africa and the Andaman people of India. The Twa people are either the ancestor of Homo Flores or Homo Flores and the Twa have the same African ancestor.
For more than one million years, the remote Indonesian island of Flores was home to a mysterious species of Hobbit-sized humans. Called Homo floresiensis, the primitive humans stood at just 3ft (0.9 metres) tall and until now, little has been known about their origins. But researchers have finally discovered that the tiny island dwellers evolved from one the earliest species of human more than 1.75 million years ago - and they may have been the first out of Africa.
Scientists carried out the world's most comprehensive study on the bones of the Flores people and found that they most likely evolved at the same time as Homo habilis. Homo habilis is one of the earliest species of human, which lived in Africa roughly 2.1 to 1.5 million years ago. The findings cast doubt on the widely held assumption that the islanders evolved from Homo erectus, a more modern species of human. The new discovery means that the Flores island people evolved hundreds of thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Lead researcher Dr Debbie Argue, from the Australian National University, told MailOnline: 'We analysed the characteristics of the skulls, jaws, and teeth; and shoulder, arm and leg bones of H. floresiensis and compared them to H. erectus, another species of Homo, and the Australopithecines [early human-like ancestor]. 'Using a statistical program, we produced a family tree of relationships among the species. 'In this we found that H. floresiensis was very closely related to H. habilis.
'In fact, we can say that these two species are most likely to have shared a unique common ancestor that was not shared with any other species in our analysis.' Dr Argue said none of the data supported the theory that Homo floresiensis evolved from Homo erectus. 'We looked at whether Homo floresiensis could be descended from Homo erectus,' she said. 'We found that if you try and link them on the family tree, you get a very unsupported result. 'All the tests say it doesn't fit - it's just not a viable theory.' Homo floresiensis is known to have lived on Flores until as recently as 54,000 years ago.
The study suggests that the island dwellers may have lived undisturbed in Indonesia for more than one million years. Dr Argue said: 'Now to me this is one of the most amazing aspects of H. floresiensis. 'It existed at least between around 60,000 and 100,000 years ago on Flores, Indonesia. 'H. habilis, its closest relative, however, lived in Africa from around 1.75 million years ago till one million years ago.
'They shared a common ancestor, so we have to conclude that H. floresiensis' lineage must have evolved earlier than H. habilis, or, perhaps, around the same time. 'So even though we only know of H. floresiensis from relatively recent times, its linage would go back 1.75 million years ago or more.' Researchers used their fingings to create a detailed 3D reconstruction of a Flores woman. Where previous research had focused mostly on the skull and lower jaw, this study used 133 data points ranging across the skull, jaws, teeth, arms, legs and shoulders.
The researchers found that many parts of the body indicated that H. floresiensis was more primitive than previously thought. For example, the species had short legs and long arms, a feature common of early humans and modern apes such as the chimpanzee. It also had primitive facial features. Dr Argue said: 'The skull is low, widest around the level of the ears; and it has a sloping forehead. 'It has a mound of bone in the eyebrow area that extends around the outside of the eye area.
It has no chin. Instead the jaw slopes backwards.' She added the shape of the skull suggested that the tiny people had small brains and may not have been intelligent as other Hominin species. But there is evidence that the primitive people had well developed frontal lobes, the part of the brain associated with more complex human behaviours. 'We studied scans of the imprint of the brain inside the H. floresiensis skull,' Dr Argue said. 'We found that H. floresiensis had a highly developed frontal lobe.
This is the part of the brain that helps us plan, pass information from generation to generation, and learn from mistakes.' Her study also sheds light on why the Flores people were so small. Scientists once believed that the Flores people were deformed modern humans, affected by a condition similar to dwarfism. But the new study suggests that the people may have been small because they evolved before H. erectus, which was the first hominin to grow tall. An artist used features of the skull to recreate the face of a Flores woman. The artist first estimated the points of muscle attachment and then used software to add a layer of skin +11 An artist used features of the skull to recreate the face of a Flores woman. The artist first estimated the points of muscle attachment and then used software to add a layer of skin Dr Argue said: 'H. floresiensis is indeed a small species. 'But they were not much smaller than H. habilis, and similar to the stature of the Australopithecines, so it's likely they were a small species to begin with.' But we are no closer to understanding why the island people, who lived on Flores for more than one million years, suddenly died out. 'At this stage, we simply don't know when H. floresiensis died out,' said Dr Argue. 'Until we can get a handle on this, we are not in a position to work out why it became extinct. 'In summary – we don't know when it became extinct, nor what caused this.' A profile view of the Flores woman. We are no closer to understanding why the island people, who lived on Flores for more than one million years, suddenly died out +11 A profile view of the Flores woman. We are no closer to understanding why the island people, who lived on Flores for more than one million years, suddenly died out
Scientists have discovered that the miniature human species Homo floresiensis evolved thousands of years earlier than previously believed. They came to this conclusion by studying the skeleton of H. floresiensis, which has a number of primitive features (pictured)
Homo floresiensis (pictured) is a primitive human species that stood at just 3ft (0.9 metres) tall. Pictured is an artist's reconstruction of the species
An artist used information from fossiled remains to create a detailed 3D reconstruction of a Flores woman
H. floresiensis lived in Liang Bua cave on the remote Indonesian island of Flores and are known from just a few fragmented remains
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population range of Twa people in the Congo is 200K to 600K--less than 0.01% of Africa's population. Clearly an "outlier group". The average male height is 5.0 feet.
The average height of a rural Chinese male is 5.5 feet. There would be some overlap.
Homo sapiens sapiens--i.e. humanity in its present form began dome 180-200KYA. Other groups would properly be described as proto-human.
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Pygmy populations are among the few hunter-gatherers currently living in sub-Saharan Africa and are mainly represented by two groups, Eastern and Western, according to their current geographical distribution. They are scattered across the Central African belt and surrounded by Bantu-speaking farmers, with whom they have complex social and economic interactions. To investigate the demographic history of Pygmy groups, a population approach was applied to the analysis of 205 complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from ten central African populations. No sharing of maternal lineages was observed between the two Pygmy groups, with haplogroup L1c being characteristic of the Western group but most of Eastern Pygmy lineages falling into subclades of L0a, L2a, and L5. Demographic inferences based on Bayesian coalescent simulations point to an early split among the maternal ancestors of Pygmies and those of Bantu-speaking farmers (∼70,000 years ago [ya]). Evidence for population growth in the ancestors of Bantu-speaking farmers has been observed, starting ∼65,000 ya, well before the diffusion of Bantu languages. Subsequently, the effective population size of the ancestors of Pygmies remained constant over time and ∼27,000 ya, coincident with the Last Glacial Maximum, Eastern and Western Pygmies diverged, with evidence of subsequent migration only among the Western group and the Bantu-speaking farmers. Western Pygmies show signs of a recent bottleneck 4,000–650 ya, coincident with the diffusion of Bantu languages, whereas Eastern Pygmies seem to have experienced a more ancient decrease in population size (20,000–4,000 ya). In conclusion, the results of this first attempt at analyzing complete mtDNA sequences at the population level in sub-Saharan Africa not only support previous findings but also offer new insights into the demographic history of Pygmy populations, shedding new light on the ancient peopling of the African continent.
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