The primative wrist of Homo floresiensis and its implications for hominin evolution

RIS ID

20717

Publication Details

Tocheri, M. W., Orr, C. M., Larson, S. G., Sutikna, T., Jatmiko, , Saptomo, E., Due, R., Djubiantono, T., Morwood, M. J. and Jungers, W. L. (2007). The primative wrist of Homo floresiensis and its implications for hominin evolution. Science, 317 1743-1745.

Abstract

Whether the Late Pleistocene hominin fossils from Flores, Indonesia, represent a new species, Homo floresiensis, or pathological modern humans has been debated. Analysis of three wrist bones from the holotype specimen (LB1) shows that it retains wrist morphology that is primitive for the African ape-human clade. In contrast, Neandertals and modern humans share derived wrist morphology that forms during embryogenesis, which diminishes the probability that pathology could result in the normal primitive state. This evidence indicates that LB1 is not a modern human with an undiagnosed pathology or growth defect; rather, it represents a species descended from a hominin ancestor that branched off before the origin of the clade that includes modern humans, Neandertals, and their last common ancestor.

Please refer to publisher version or contact your library.

Share

COinS
 

Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1147143