From Robert Haworth
In your interview with Richard Leakey, you report that he steps aside from the debate on whether Homo floresiensis – the “hobbit” – represents a distinct species. Instead, he states that their status is not very important to the story of human evolution (17 October, p 32). In fact, it is fairly well accepted that H. floresiensis is a new hominin species. Every part of it cries out that it is the continuation of something very archaic in human lineage.
The implications for theories of the evolution of species, be they hominin or otherwise, are enormous. We now know that up to almost the end of the Pleistocene, four separate species of hominins were walking the Earth: Neanderthals in west Eurasia, Homo erectus in southern Asia, H. floresiensis in at least the Sunda islands, Indonesia, and Homo sapiens almost everywhere. This is contrary to the widely held view that closely related species will compete with each other to extinction. Only in the past 10,000 years or so has Earth been populated by a single human species.
Leakey argues that only “a very few individuals” of H. floresiensis have been found. However, as with all reports of fossil types, the key word has been left out: very few have been found – yet. We have only uncovered a fraction of the story of human evolution, and what we have found is hopelessly biased towards regions where it is easy to find fossils, specifically the Rift valley of Africa.
Mike Morwood, one of the discoverers of H. floresiensis, is convinced that there are more specimens to be found in south-east Asia and Australasia. The real story of human evolution is just beginning as researchers venture out into more difficult regions to find the evidence.
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Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
