Portal:Mammals/Selected articles/4

Homo floresiensis ("Man of Flores", nicknamed Hobbit) is the name for a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body, small brain, and survival until relatively recent times. Anthropologists Peter Brown, Michael Morwood, and their colleagues have argued that a variety of features, both primitive and derived, identified the skeleton of LB1 as that of a new species of hominin, H. floresiensis. It is thought to have been contemporaneous with modern humans (Homo sapiens) on the Indonesian island of Flores. One largely complete sub-fossil skeleton (LB1) and one molar (LB2), dated at 18,000 years old, were discovered in deposits in Liang Bua Cave on Flores in 2003. Parts of seven other individuals (LB3 – LB9, the most complete being LB6), all diminutive, have been recovered as well as similarly small stone tools from horizons ranging from 94,000 to 13,000 years ago. The first of these remains was unearthed in 2003 and the publication date of the original description is October 2004. Early doubts that the discoveries constitute a new species were voiced by the Indonesian anthropologist Teuku Jacob, who suggested that the skull of LB1 was a microcephalic modern human, but support for species status appeared in March 2005, following publication of details of the brain of Flores Man in Science. Subsequently several researchers, including one scientist who worked on the initial study, have disputed the 2005 study, supporting the conclusion that the skull is microcephalic.