Setelah homo soloensis dan homo wajakensis sekarang homo
florensis....
Teori evolusi Charles Darwin terus berkembang dan
disempurnakan...
============
Scientists uncover possible new species of human Dwarf skeleton
is 18,000 years old
(AP) -- In a breathtaking discovery, scientists working on a
remote Indonesian island say they have uncovered the bones of a
human dwarf species marooned for eons while modern man rapidly
colonized the rest of the planet.
One tiny specimen, an adult female measuring about 3 feet tall,
is described as "the most extreme" figure to be included in the
extended human family. Certainly, she is the shortest.
This hobbit-sized creature appears to have lived as recently as
18,000 years ago on the island of Flores, a kind of tropical
Lost World populated by giant lizards and miniature elephants.
She is the best example of a trove of fragmented bones that
account for as many as seven of these primitive individuals.
Scientists have named the new species Homo floresiensis, or
Flores Man. The specimens' ages range from 95,000 to 12,000 years
old.
"So the 18,000-year-old skeleton cannot be some kind of 'freak'
that we just happened to stumble across," said one of the
discoverers, radiocarbon dating expert Richard G. Roberts of the
University of Wollongong in Australia.
Flores Man was hardly formidable. His grapefruit-sized brain was
about a quarter the size of the brain of our species, Homo
sapiens. It is closer in size with the brains of transitional
prehuman species in Africa more than 3 million years ago.
Yet evidence suggests Flores Man made stone tools, lit fires and
organized group hunts for meat.
Just how this primitive, remnant species managed to hang on and
whether it crossed paths with modern humans is uncertain.
Geologic evidence suggests a massive volcanic eruption sealed its
fate some 12,000 years ago, along with other unusual species on
the island.
Still, researchers say the perseverance of Flores Man smashes
the conventional wisdom that modern humans began to
systematically crowd out other upright-walking species 160,000
years ago and have dominated the planet alone for tens of
thousands of years.
And it demonstrates that Africa, the acknowledged cradle of
humanity, does not hold all the answers to persistent questions
of how -- and where -- we came to be.
"It is arguably the most significant discovery concerning our
own genus in my lifetime," said anthropologist Bernard Wood of
George Washington University, who reviewed the research
independently.
Discoveries simply "don't get any better than that," proclaimed
Robert Foley and Marta Mirazon Lahr of Cambridge University in a
written analysis.
To others, the specimen's baffling combination of slight
dimensions and coarse features bears almost no meaningful
resemblance either to modern humans or to our large, archaic
cousins.
They suggest that Flores Man doesn't belong in the genus Homo at
all, even if it was a recent contemporary.
"I don't think anybody can pigeonhole this into the very simple-
minded theories of what is human," anthropologist Jeffery
Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh. "There is no biological
reason to call it Homo. We have to rethink what it is."
Details of the discovery appear in Thursday's issue of the
journal Nature.
Researchers from Australia and Indonesia found the partial
skeleton 13 months ago in a shallow limestone cave known as Liang
Bua. The cave, which extends into a hillside for about 130 feet,
has been the subject of scientific analysis since 1964.
Near the skeleton were stone tools and animal remains, including
teeth from a young Stegodon, or prehistoric dwarf elephant, as
well as fish, birds and rodents. Some of the bones were charred,
suggesting they were cooked.
Excavations are continuing. In 1998, stone tools and other
evidence were found on Flores suggested the presence 900,000
years ago of another early human, Homo erectus. The tools were
found a century after the celebrated discovery in the 1890s of
big-boned H. erectus fossils in eastern Java.
Now, researchers suggest H. erectus spread to remote Flores and
throughout the region, perhaps on bamboo rafts. Caves on
surrounding islands are the target of future studies, they said.
Researchers suspect that Flores Man probably is an H. erectus
descendant that was squeezed by evolutionary pressures.
Nature is full of mammals -- deer, squirrels and pigs, for
example -- living in marginal, isolated environments that
gradually dwarf when food isn't plentiful and predators aren't
threatening.
On Flores, the Komodo dragon and other large meat-eating lizards
prowled. But Flores Man didn't have to worry about violent human
neighbors.
This is the first time that the evolution of dwarfism has been
recorded in a human relative, said the study's lead author,
Peter Brown of the University of New England in Australia.
Scientists are still struggling to identify it's jumbled
features.
Many say they its face and skull features show sufficient traits
to be included in the Homo family that includes modern humans. It
would be the eighth species in the Homo category.
George Washington's Wood, for example, finds it "convincing."
Others aren't sure.
For example, they say the skull is wide like H. erectus. But the
sides are rounder and the crown traces an arc from ear to ear.
The skull of H. erectus has steeper sides and a pointed crown,
they said.
The lower jaw contains large, blunt teeth and roots like
Australopithecus, a prehuman ancestor in Africa more than 3
million years ago. The front teeth are smaller than modern human
teeth.
The eye sockets are big and round, but they don't carry a
prominent browline.
The tibia in the leg shares similarities with apes.
"I've spent a sleepless night trying to figure out what to do
with this thing," said Schwartz. "It makes me think of nothing
else in this world."
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Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/10/27/dwarf.cavewoman.ap/index
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