Encore for Evolutionary Small-Timers: Tiny human cousins get younger with new finds
By Bruce Bower
Recently excavated remains of half-size human ancestors on the Indonesian island of Flores indicate that these ancient individuals belonged to a distinctive species that survived until about 12,000 years ago, which is longer than researchers initially estimated.
The growing cache of fossils of this species, Homo floresiensis, represents at least nine individuals, say archaeologist Michael J. Morwood of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, and his colleagues. The same scientists announced their discovery of H. floresiensis last year (SN: 10/30/04, p. 275: Evolutionary Shrinkage: Stone Age Homo find offers small surprise), including a partial skeleton estimated to be around 18,000 years old and other fossils dating from up to 95,000 years ago. All the individuals represented by the fossils were no taller than about 1 meter.