The evolution of Homo floresiensis or Flower Man nicknamed “hobbit” due to its small size and an extinct species of the genus Homo, is still full of unknowns. Now, a team of scientists from Wollongong University (Australia), the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo (Japan), the Geological Museum of Bandung (Indonesia) and Griffith University (Australia) have discovered the fossilized remains of a hominid that could be the ancestor of the Man of Flowers.
The analysis of the remains found in 2014 on the island of Flores (Indonesia) of at least three small hominids and with an age of about 700,000 years , have revealed that their size and morphology support the possibility that it is the ancestor of this “hobbit”, characterized by the small size of its body (barely 1 meter in height) and about 25 kilograms in weight.
” This discovery has important implications for understanding the dispersal and evolution of the first humans in the region and finally eliminates the doubts of those who believe that Homo floresiensis was simply a modern human -Homo sapiens- diseased”, clarifies Gert van den Bergh, co-author of the work.
The remains (jaw and teeth), located in the Mata Menge region, in the So’a basin, about 70 kilometers from the cave where the Flores man was discovered in 2003, correspond to a hominid of around 1 meter tall, about 30 kilograms in weight and a small brain, which would have disappeared about 50,000 years ago , according to expert estimates.
Both Fred Spoor, a paleontologist at University College London, and Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum, London (UK) agree that Homo erectus is now the best piece of the puzzle for the ancestor of Flores man who, for some reason, they were isolated on the island of Flores.
The study has been published in the journal Nature.
