Harvati’s Research On Homo Floresiensis

Homo Floresiensis was discovered by a group of Australian-Indonesian researchers in 2003 and was announced as a new human species in 2004.

Since the discovery, researchers have clashed over whether H. Floresiensis really does represent a species of its own, a descendant of Homo erectus or a pathological form of Homo sapiens.

According to a study led by Greek-American Katerina Harvati from Tübingen University, Germany, there are two competing hypotheses over the status of Homo floresiensis. It could represent a new hominin species that descended from a local population of Homo erectus or from an earlier migration of a small-bodied and small-brained hominin out of Africa.

Some or all of the specimens recovered from Liang Bua are pathological members of a small-bodied modern human population. Pathological conditions proposed to explain their documented anatomical features include microcephaly, cretinism and Laron syndrome.

Harvati and colleagues also stated, “Our findings provide the most comprehensive evidence to date linking the Homo floresiensis skull with extinct fossil human species rather than with pathological modern humans. Our study therefore refutes the hypothesis that this specimen represents a modern human with a pathological condition, such as microcephaly.”