Early evolution of small body size in Homo floresiensis

Autor: Yousuke Kaifu, Iwan Kurniawan, Soichiro Mizushima, Junmei Sawada, Michael Lague, Ruly Setiawan, Indra Sutisna, Unggul P. Wibowo, Gen Suwa, Reiko T. Kono, Tomohiko Sasaki, Adam Brumm, Gerrit D. van den Bergh
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nature Communications, Vol 15, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2041-1723
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50649-7
Popis: Abstract Recent discoveries of Homo floresiensis and H. luzonensis raise questions regarding how extreme body size reduction occurred in some extinct Homo species in insular environments. Previous investigations at Mata Menge, Flores Island, Indonesia, suggested that the early Middle Pleistocene ancestors of H. floresiensis had even smaller jaws and teeth. Here, we report additional hominin fossils from the same deposits at Mata Menge. An adult humerus is estimated to be 9 − 16% shorter and thinner than the type specimen of H. floresiensis dated to ~60,000 years ago, and is smaller than any other Plio-Pleistocene adult hominin humeri hitherto reported. The newly recovered teeth are both exceptionally small; one of them bears closer morphological similarities to early Javanese H. erectus. The H. floresiensis lineage most likely evolved from early Asian H. erectus and was a long-lasting lineage on Flores with markedly diminutive body size since at least ~700,000 years ago.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals