Homo floresiensis- A Human Ancestor or just a modern human?
April 26th, 2018
According to a lesson posted by FutureLearn about "evolution of men", a small finding in an Indonesian Island gave way to a previous species of man.
"In a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, a team of archaeologists were surprised to find the skeletal remains of a mysterious new species. This free online course follows the incredible discovery of Homo floresiensis - or ‘the Hobbit’ as it has come to be known. Join us on a quest of discovery and adventure as the mystery is unravelled piece by piece using a variety of scientific techniques and archaeological approaches." https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/homo-floresiensis (The University of Wollongong, Australia, 2018)
But, what that finding really a new species of man's predecessors ?
Homo floresiensis, the meter-high hobbit-like race conjectured on the basis of bones discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores, seemed to fulfill that expectation. Many hopes were pinned on this diminutive person, called LB1 after the name of the cave, Liang Bua, where she was found. Dating back to only 18,000 years ago, the specimen of a female was coeval with modern humans, but not like us. Or was she? (Henneberg, Eckhardt, Chavanaves, & Hsu, 2014)
What or who was it ?
Someone with Down Syndrome. Nothing more. Not a human ancestor, not a predecessor to humans.
(Henneberg, Eckhardt, Chavanaves, & Hsu, 2014).
Why does Wikipedia.org insists in making it part of Human "Evolution" scenes?
Wikipedia.org intends to include this finding as part of the human descent, although the only specimen that belongs in this image is
simply "Homo Erectus", a fully formed human. Another fallacy on the part of their contributors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_naledi
According to the following quote from Wikipedia.org,
"A PBS NOVA National Geographic documentary Dawn of Humanity, describing the discovery of H. naledi, was posted online on 10 September 2015, and broadcast nationwide in the United States on 16 September 2015.[56] According to archeologist K. Kris Hirst, the Dawn of Humanity documentary film provides "a rich context for the discovery [of the fossils of Homo naledi], setting the historical and evolutionary background so that viewers can understand the significance of the discovery."
"The National Geographic Society has videos on its website describing, explaining and showing different phases of the discovery, the scientists, the six women researchers, excavation of the fossils during a two-year period, and the process of making a model of a head of H. naledi from the fossils."
The Dawn of Humanity article presented at Wikipedia, erroneously instists in presenting Homo Naledi as "homo" or human species and says: "
"Dawn of Humanity is a 2015 American documentary film that was released online on September 10, 2015, and aired nationwide in the United States on September 16, 2015. The PBS NOVA National Geographic film, in one episode of two hours, was directed and produced by Graham Townsley. The film describes the 2013 discovery, and later excavation, of the fossil remains of Homo naledi, an extinct species of hominin assigned to the genus Homo"
What does the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say about this?
A new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences dashes the hopes of making Homo floresiensis human like and or descent in scathing fashion. Pretty much everything that seemed to be diagnostic of a new species living so in hauntingly recent times turns out to be more indicative of a modern human afflicted by Down syndrome.
An article on "Evolved developmental homeostasis disturbed in LB1 from Flores, Indonesia, denotes Down syndrome and not diagnostic traits of the invalid species Homo floresiensis"said:
Here we demonstrate that the facial asymmetry, small endocranial volume, brachycephaly, disproportionately short femora, flat feet, and numerous other characteristics of LB1 are highly diagnostic of Down syndrome, one of the most commonly occurring developmental disorders in humans and also documented in related hominoids such as chimpanzees and orangutans.
“Our analyses show that the brain size of LB1 is in the
range predicted for an individual with Down syndrome (DS) in a
normal small-bodied population from the geographic region that
includes Flores.”
"Among additional diagnostic signs of DS and other
skeletal dysplasiae are abnormally short femora combined with
disproportionate flat feet.”
“Our consistent hypothesis (3) sees LB1 as a developmentally
abnormal individual member of a recent Australomelanesian
H. sapiens population”
http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2014/07/31/1407382111.full.pdf
Definitely, this was not a precursur to man, but rather an individual with a human deformity as evidenced by the findings of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. (Klinghoffer, 2014)
Other Imagined Human Precursors
What about Homo Habilis ?
“Homo Habilis fossils do NOT actually belong to the “human” group, but rather to an ape category, and probably Australopithecus,
“Both Homo Habilis and Autralopithecus walked stopped over like an ape and not upright like a man.” (Biddle, Bisbee, & Bergman, 2016).
What about Lucy ?
"A 2016 study proposes that Australopithecus afarensis was also to a large extent tree-dwelling, though the extent of this is debated.", as posted by Wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus)#cite_note-31
References
Biddle, D., A. Ph. ., Bisbee, D., A., & Bergman, J., Ph. . (2016). Debunking Human Evolution Taught in Our Public Schools. Gemesis Apologetics, Inc.
Henneberg, M., Eckhardt, R. B., Chavanaves, S., & Hsu, K. J. (2014). Evolved developmental homeostasis disturbed in LB1 from Flores, Indonesia, denotes Down syndrome and not diagnostic traits of the invalid species Homo floresiensis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America(PNAS). Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2014/07/31/1407382111.full.pdf
Klinghoffer, D. (2014). From PNAS,(Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences) a Scathing Rebuke to Hype over Homo Floresiensis, Lost “Hobbit” Species. Retrieved from https://evolutionnews.org/2014/08/from_pnas_a_sca/
The University of Wollongong, Australia. (2018). Homo Floresiensis Uncovered: The Science of ‘the Hobbit.’ Lesson, Australia. Retrieved from https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/homo-floresiensis
Copyright
Fred Echeverria