An international team of scientists has opened a new page in the dispute about the "Flores man" - a fossil hominin, whose remains were discovered in 2003 in Indonesia (Flores Island, Liang Bua Cave).
Part of the world scientific community considers the Floresian man a separate species of dwarf people who lived in island isolation at the same time when only Homo sapiens remained on the planet. Other scientists, to whom the authors of the article belong, believe that the unusual appearance of the "hobbit" is explained by congenital pathology.
Maciej Henneberg and his colleagues argue that from the point of view of scientific logic it is impossible to "establish" a new species based only on the skull from Liang Bua, which has signs of abnormal development (even if a specific medical diagnosis is not yet possible).
Unusual properties are not the same as unique, and the burden of proving the uniqueness of the "man of the flores" should lie with the supporters of a more extravagant hypothesis. The mere presence of anatomical features characteristic of many congenital malformations (asymmetry, small brain size, short stature) in a type specimen makes it impossible to isolate a new species according to the criteria of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
Reconstruction of the appearance
These traits are individually found in many representatives of the Austronesian race. Finally, scientists note: the normal scientific process of testing a hypothesis in the case of a man of Flores is hampered by the fact that the Indonesian authorities have closed access to the world scientific community to hominid bones.
In the second article, the authors highlight the methodological errors of the first publication about the "hobbit" in Nature (2004). Considering that the owner of the skull from the Flores cave lived at the same time as Homo sapiens (74-12 thousand years ago), the “inventors” of the new species should have considered its anatomical features in the context of human diseases - but this was not done … Short stature and small brain volume occur in at least 50 syndromes.
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The study authors initially hypothesized that the Flores man suffered from Laron's dwarfism. However, in the course of further searches, they settled on three indicators: craniofacial asymmetry, fronto-occipital size and short femurs, which, in their opinion, indicate Down syndrome.
Comparison with the anthropometric indices of modern Indonesians led the authors to the conclusion that the brain size and height of the Floresian person is within the normal range for an Austronesian with Down syndrome.
