Homo floresiensis Contextualized: A Geometric Morphometric Comparative Analysis of Fossil and Pathological Human Samples

Baab, Karen L.; McNulty, Kieran P.; Harvati, Katerina

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069119

Cited by 36 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 64 publications

(116 reference statements)

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“…Initially it was suggested that H. floresiensis was a dwarfed H. erectus, but the burden of subsequent analyses suggests that it may be more closely related to a more primitive hominin such as H. habilis sensu stricto (Tocheri et al, 2007;Argue et al, 2009;Brown and Maeda, 2009;Morwood and Jungers, 2009). Other researchers have suggested that no new taxon needs to be erected because they claim the "Homo floresiensis hypodigm" has been sampled from a population of Homo sapiens-most likely related to the smallstatured Rampasasa people who live on Flores todayafflicted by either an endocrine disorder or a range of syndromes that include microcephaly, or who retain primitive morphology (see Baab et al, 2013 andWestaway et al, 2015 for refutations of these hypotheses).…”

Section: Ma To the Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hominin taxic diversity: Fact or fantasy?

Wood

Boyle

2016

American J Phys Anthropol

161

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In this review of the evidence for and against taxic diversity within the hominin clade, we begin by looking at the logic and the history of simple "ladder-like" interpretations of the hominin fossil record. We then look at the hominin fossil record in a series of time intervals and use current published evidence about the first and last appearance dates of each taxon to decide whether a species or specimens should be included in one, or more, of the intervals. Within each time interval, we consider the strength of the evidence that more than one hominin species is sampled. Decisions about whether taxonomic diversity exists depend on what alpha taxonomic hypotheses are used and although we use a relatively speciose interpretation of the hominin fossil record, we also explore what impact more inclusive interpretations of alpha taxonomy would have on assessments of hominin taxic diversity. With the exception of the oldest (7-5 Ma) all of the other time intervals have in our judgment at least one well-supported example of taxic diversity and several have multiple examples. In summary, not all new hominin taxa are created equally, but while taxic diversity may not be as prevalent as some have claimed, it is a feature of the hominin clade from 4 Ma until c.40 ka years ago. Am J Phys Anthropol 159:S37-S78,

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Section: Ma To the Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hominin taxic diversity: Fact or fantasy?

Wood

Boyle

2016

American J Phys Anthropol

161

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“…The skeletal remains of this new species are known from the Late Pleistocene strata at Liang Bua, a limestone cave on the island. Morphology of its cranium, endocast, mandible, shoulder girdle, pelvis, limb bones, hand, and foot have been described, analyzed, and interpreted (Brown et al, 2004;Morwood et al, 2005;Falk et al, 2005Falk et al, , 2009Argue et al, 2006Argue et al, , 2009Larson et al, 2007Larson et al, , 2009Tocheri et al, 2007;Gordon et al, 2008;Baab and McNulty, 2009;Brown and Maeda, 2009;Fransiscus, 2009, 2012;Jungers et al, 2009a, b;Lyras et al, 2009;Aiello, 2010;Kaifu et al, 2011;van Heteren, 2012;Baab et al, 2013;Jungers, 2013;Kubo et al, 2013;Orr et al, 2013;Daegling et al, 2014). However, not all the dental remains have been described in sufficient detail, and there even exists controversy as to whether the dental morphology of H. floresiensis is primitive or modern (Jacob et al, 2006;Brown and Maeda, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Descriptions of the dental remains of <i>Homo floresiensis</i>

Kaifu

Kono

Sutikna

et al. 2015

Anthropological Science

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Dental remains of Homo floresiensis excavated during [2002][2003][2004] at Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia, consist of one partial maxillary dentition, two nearly complete mandibular dentitions, and four isolated teeth. We present here morphological descriptions of all these specimens and report aspects of their dentition, occlusion, and oral health condition. This dental assemblage represents probably five but possibly four or six individuals. These different individuals share similar dental characteristics, supporting the view that the Liang Bua H. floresiensis assemblage represents a single population. We also reassess the previous claims for primitive and modern aspects of the H. floresiensis teeth. The previous studies reached conflicting conclusions: some researchers claim that these teeth are fully modern, whereas others highlight premolar and other morphologies that suggest their direct evolutionary link with the African earliest form of Homo or Australopithecus rather than with H. erectus. Neither of these views are supported. The H. floresiensis teeth exhibit a mosaic of primitive, derived, and unique characters, with the reported primitive aspects broadly comparable to the morphologies observed in H. erectus sensu lato. Although a more comprehensive comparative analysis is needed to fully illustrate dental morphological affinities of this dwarfed hominin species, we find no grounds for the hypothesis that H. floresiensis originated from the small-bodied, primitive hominins such as H. habilis sensu lato.

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“…Those data led us to reexamine facial asymmetry data for LB1. Our nonstandard but repeatable measurements (3) were dictated by the statement (1) that, on the LB1 skull, most standard craniometric landmarks could not be recognized, as recently confirmed (22) but persistently ignored (25,42). The correspondence between our measurement patterns on LB1 facial bone landmarks and those for DS soft tissue points (41) is striking, given the comparison of absolute distances in our data with published frequencies (not magnitudes) of asymmetric linear distances (Table S1).…”

Section: Match Of Lb1 To Ds Patient Signsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Evolved developmental homeostasis disturbed in LB1 from Flores, Indonesia, denotes Down syndrome and not diagnostic traits of the invalid species Homo floresiensis

Henneberg

Eckhardt

Chavanaves

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Significance The population that has become known as Homo floresiensis has been described as “the most extreme human ever discovered.” Specimen LB1 from Liang Bua Cave is unusual, but craniofacial and postcranial characteristics originally said to be diagnostic of the new species are not evident in the other more fragmentary skeletons in the sample that resemble other recent small-bodied human populations in the region (including the Andaman Islands, Palau, and Flores itself). Here we demonstrate that the facial asymmetry, small endocranial volume, brachycephaly, disproportionately short femora, flat feet, and numerous other characteristics of LB1 are highly diagnostic of Down syndrome, one of the most commonly occurring developmental disorders in humans and also documented in related hominoids such as chimpanzees and orangutans.

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Homo floresiensis Contextualized: A Geometric Morphometric Comparative Analysis of Fossil and Pathological Human Samples

Cited by 36 publications

References 64 publications

Hominin taxic diversity: Fact or fantasy?

Hominin taxic diversity: Fact or fantasy?

Descriptions of the dental remains of <i>Homo floresiensis</i>

Evolved developmental homeostasis disturbed in LB1 from Flores, Indonesia, denotes Down syndrome and not diagnostic traits of the invalid species Homo floresiensis

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