Why were some of our relatives so small?
The island of Flores in Indonesia was home to unusually small hominins (Homo floresiensis), popularly known as ‘Hobbits’, who were about a metre tall and lived around 60 thousand years ago. Other animals from this region were also known to exhibit unusual body size. But there is still considerable debate about how hominins in Southeast Asia, evolved to be so small.
Now Yousuke Kaifu and colleagues present new fossils from Mata Menge, on the island of Flores, including teeth and a partial upper arm bone, dated to about 700,000 years ago. The authors analysed the fossils and found that the humerus may be the smallest ever. The findings, published in Nature Communications, shed light on the evolution of small stature in hominins from southeast Asia.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146...