Comments on: Homo floresiensis’ Primitive Wrist

By: Watch NOVA’s “Alien From Earth,” premiering tomorrow Tuesday, November 11 at 8pm on PBS « Anthropology.net

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:10:19 +0000

[...] Matt Tocheri will be providing an explanation of his 2007 analysis of the wrist bones of the hobbit and comparison to African apes. Tocheri argues that based upon wrist bones, Homo floresiensis is for sure a separate species because the bones are indistinguishable from ancestral African apes or other early hominin-like wrists and resemble nothing like modern humans and Neandertals. Bill Jungers will be arguing that he see similarities of the hobbit’s bones to that of Australopithecus afarensis. Homo floresiensis mandibles [...]

By: Emerging news of Debbie Argue’s cladistic analysis of Homo floresiensis « Anthropology.net

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:08:16 +0000

[...] conclusion is in line with conclusion made by academics in September. But the most liberal assesment of when hominins began occupying Flores Island is around 94,000 [...]

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 25 May 2008 11:04:38 +0000

This is an old post so I’m not sure if anyone is still following it or commenting on it. I’ve recently been doing a lot of study on Homo floresiensis and too have gone back and forth on the issue. But one thing does bother me about this that I rarely see mentioned.

Microcephaly appears to be fairly rare as someone mentioned, appearing in 1 in 2000 births in isolated inbred populations. From what I’ve read, Microcephaly would mean poor brain function and the potential for other abnormalities and complications. It also leads to shortened life expectancies. With homo floresiensis being estimated to have been 25-30 years old, it would seem to be rare in itself that this individual could have survived that long in a primitive culture with such a disability.

This isn’t to make a scientific judgment either way. I’m just stating that the probability of finding an individual with microcephaly who has lived that long at that time would seem to be something that has staggering odds. I’ve never seen this brought up in arguments.

By: Bill Jungers’ conclusions on Homo floresiensis bipedalism — the clown-footed hominin « Anthropology.net

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:56:54 +0000

[...] So, he’s associating this morphology with a primitive hominid condition. Not all too novel…. a group did the same last fall, but with the wrist bones. [...]

By: Pickle

Pickle — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:47:58 +0000

it seems pretty simple to me, this has got to be new. its unlike everything else

By: Was Homo floresiensis a population of myxoedematous endemic cretin Homo sapiens? « Anthropology.net

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:57:15 +0000

[...] such as the humeral torsion and the ‘primitive’ wrist bones — stuff we saw in September of 2007, when “The Primitive Wrist of Homo floresiensis and Its Implications for Hominin [...]

By: More on H. floresiensis’ prmitive wrist « Science Notes

More on H. floresiensis’ prmitive wrist « Science Notes — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:34:16 +0000

[...] 2007 18:14 — monado Here’s a link to a discussion of the paper that compares the wrist bones of Homo floresiensis with those of modern humans, H. habilis, H. sapiens neandertalis, and three great apes. You can see [...]

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:23:27 +0000

Now guys, here you overlook one important aspect: “Frequencies for microcephaly may be up to 1 in 2,000 births in isolated (inbred) populations.”

The findings reported a complete skull, a second complete jaw, and fragments of other jaw/skull pieces. The second jaw piece matched EXACTLY with the previous one, and obviously it is doubtful that a second case of microcephaly would happen.

Besides, the other pieces match along with the first two, thus proving that it cannot be microcephaly.

By: Anthropology.net

Anthropology.net — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:12:44 +0000

Is the Homo floresiensis phenotype due to mutations in the PCNT gene?

Again with more confusing back and forthing…. but this time we leave the Neandertals and focus in on debate over whether or not Homo floresiensis is a novel species. New research published in Science, focuses in on the discovery of a mutation in …

By: Petr Jandacek

Petr Jandacek — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:46:50 +0000

If Homo floresiensis – with ape-like brain, wrist, dentition and overall anatomy were found in Africa and dated between 18,000 and 11,000 years ago – it would be recognized as a LATTER DAY AUSTRALO-PITHECUS. For much more information see –
http://www.laschools.net/146120827151657640/site/default.asp
at the website of Los Alamos NM Schools
Petr Jandacek