Evolution
A skeleton was discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in the South Pacific. The skeleton was very different and had never been discovered before though it somehow appeared a new human-like species. (Falk, 2011) The hominin is known as Homo Floresiensis in the scientific world but often referred to as the ‘hobbit.’ It is a fossilized 18000-year-old skeleton, an adult female hominin. (Price, 2001) The debate over time has been whether this particular hobbit that was discovered is a deformed human being or a member of a distinct hominid species. In my view, this particular skeleton is a new species and not individual suffering from a particular condition.
One of the arguments that can be used to support that the skeleton represents a creature of a new species is the scientists’ finding of the fossilized skeleton 18000 years ago. According to top scientific journals, experts on the origin of human beings have stated that the skeleton is a separate and primitive species that existed 18000 years ago. Most of the critics have stated that the specimen used to show a type of pygmies where at least one member’s skull or brain is deformed. A condition commonly referred to as microcephaly. A recent exhaustive analysis of the geology of the cave was done and found out that the hobbit existed between the years 60,000 and 100,000 years ago, thereby dismissing the critics. It was like 10,000 years before the arrival of the Homo Sapiens. It means that the complicated knowledge of the cave’s geology might have previously led the researchers into making their judgment. It still supports the researchers of 2003 that it is a new species and dispels any critics.
The research of the skeleton’s brainpan has confirmed that the creature was not a pygmy or an individual that had a random mutation. Critics all over have dismissed the fact that the hobbits are a new species. They have argued that the creature, which is 3feet tall and has a brain the size of a baby, was just a deformed human. But the researchers have asserted that the specimen belonged to a species that is different from Homo erectus. It has been confirmed by a computer-generated model of the skull that showed the specimens from Indonesia represented a new species.
Paleoanthropologist Thomas Sutkina observed that there was a distinctive layer of some volcanic fragments known as tuff that was visible in the cave. The substance provided a timestamp for the cave. Beneath the volcano, tuff layers were sediments that were linked to Homo floresiensis. The sediments were dated and placed between 60000 and 100,000 years ago. Critics have argued that the bone and stone tools found lack specimen labels on them bearing any formal scientific name. They claim this to be an analogy with character in works of literary fiction, which is a marketing device. But this has been disputed. The fossils, i.e., the three-arm bones found in the cave, have now been dated directly and found to have existed from about 66,000 to 87,000 years old. The researchers that worked on the fossils before might have avoided dating them directly, probably due to fear of damaging them. It could also explain why the geological analysis was previously done on the surroundings of the fossils and not the bones. The radiocarbon dating was done on the charcoal that was found close to the bone in the cave.
Critics have argued that since the Liang Bua cave lies on an island, then the archaeologists have taken advantage of this and interpreted an abnormal-looking skeleton as the discovery of a new skeleton. However, a model of the skull that was computer generated has shown how the specimens that were gotten from Indonesia prove it’s a new species. Also, a tomography scan of the Homo floresiensis skull was computerized and used to create a facsimile cast at Washington University. (Dalton, 2005) The cast was compared to a chimpanzee, Homo erectus. The comparison showed the creature was a new species.
According to the new species theory, once the Homo erectus reached Flores, they succumbed to the island law. This is where the bigger animals than rabbits reduce in size due to less food, while the smaller ones gain weight as there are no predators. It is believed that hobbits might have descended from a more primitive type of Homo erectus. The Komodo dragons and pygmy elephants remains reveal how the hobbits cooked over a fire. Inside the cave were stone flakes, which prove that they hunted and scavenged larger animals. (Morwood, 2016)
More findings also showed that the brain of hobbits did not look like diseased modern human beings. (Falk, 2011) The wrist looked like it came from an ape or an early hominid but not a modern human. This refutes claims by the critics that his skull had a small braincase while the face and teeth resembled those of the people who live near the cave currently. It is my conclusion that the hominid skeleton discovered in 2003 is a new species.
References
Dalton, R. (2005). Critics silenced by scans of hobbit skull. Nature. doi:10.1038/news050228-13
Falk, D. (2011). The Fossil Chronicles: How Two Controversial Discoveries Changed Our View of Human Evolution. Oakland: University of California Press.
Morwood, M. (2016). A New Human. doi:10.4324/9781315435657
Price, S. -. (2001). Defending the Cavewoman: And Other Tales of Evolutionary Neurology. BMJ, 323(Suppl S1), 0107255b. doi:10.1136/sbmj.0107255b