Man of Flowers: what was this ancestor of the homo genus like?

Who was the Man of Flowers? It is an extinct species of the genus Homo, which lived more than 50,000 years ago. His remains were found in 2003 on an island in Indonesia, called Flores Island (hence the name of the species).

Years after this first find, more remains of this new species were found, and it was determined that it was a different species from ours.

In this article we will tell you how it was discovered, what hypotheses were raised regarding its origin, which ones were discarded and why. We also tell you some hypotheses of why it became extinct.

• We recommend you read: "Lucy the Australopithecus: who was she and what was her life like?"

Man of Flowers: first findings

The Flower Man, also known as "Homo floresiensis" (and nicknamed Hobbit), is an extinct species of the genus Homo. In relation to the characteristics of the Man of Flowers, he had a very small body, which did not reach one meter in height. His weight hovered around 25 kilos, and his brain measured less than 400 cm3.

At first, when the remains of the Flower Man were discovered, experts believed that this species inhabited the earth until 12,000 years ago, specifically on an island in Indonesia called the island of Flowers.

However, new research revealed that their extinction occurred longer ago, specifically 50,000 years ago, just around the time Homo Sapiens spread to Southeast Asia and Australia.

As for your discovery, the skeletal remains of the Man of Flowers were found in 2003 by a team of archaeologists, on a remote island in Indonesia (called Flores Island; hence the name of this species), in the cave of Liang Bua.

New data

Years later, as a result of some excavations carried out by the "Australian Research Council", carried out Between 2007 and 2014, this species was studied again, and the most novel data of the Man of Flowers.

These data, already mentioned, revealed that the species existed until 50,000 years ago. The results of these investigations were published in the scientific journal Nature.

However, it should be mentioned that there is no unanimous agreement that answers how long the Man of Flowers lived, because there are other theories that affirm that it was between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago, as a result of the analysis of the subsoil where his remains were found.

Discovery

We mentioned above the discovery of the Flower Man. But how exactly was it? What did the experts find?

What they found was the skeleton of an adult female. After analyzing the remains, they were able to determine the discovery of a new human species, probably descended from Homo Erectus, which for its part, was the first of our ancestors to leave Africa.

As for the body of the Flower Man, it had a very small body size (one meter high, approximately), as we have already advanced. In fact, due to its size it was nicknamed the Hobbit (a character of the writer J.R.R. Tolkien, quite well known).

The debate

At first, there were opposing positions regarding the discovery of the Man of Flowers. Some believed that it was a unique and unknown hominid, and others claimed that it was a modern human suffering from dwarfism, or some disease or physical malformation

For more than 10 years, the debate and questions were served. There was, but something that all the experts agreed on, and it was the need to continue investigating and finding more remains of this new (or not) species, in order to unravel the mystery.

New Findings

Thus, research was continued and new remains of the Flower Man were found. This occurred in 2014, in an excavation carried out in Mata Menge, in the So’a basin, located at 70 km east of Liang Bua (cave on Flores Island where they found the first remains of this species).

Specifically, different fragments of him were found; its lower jaw, six small teeth (two of which were milk) and its skull. It was determined that these remains belonged to at least three different individuals: two children and one adult.

These findings allowed the researchers to determine with greater conviction that the Flower Man is a different human species from ours (that is, different from Homo Sapiens). Experts also claimed that the evolutionary roots of this new species go back more than 700,000 years old.

Analysis of the remains

What did the researchers responsible for the Flower Man find analyze and how did they conclude that it is a different species from ours? First, they analyzed the shape and size of the fossils found. Later, they compared them with those of other hominids, and came to the conclusion that some teeth of such a small size could only belong, either to Homo Sapiens or to the Man of Flowers.

However, Homo sapiens was ruled out because the origin and migration to Asia of Homo sapiens occurred much later in time than the age of the fossils found. With this, they came to the conclusion that the Man of Flowers could not be a Homo Sapiens with dwarfism or with some type of malformation or deformity.

Another piece of information that points to an earlier origin of the species is that the stone tools associated with these hominids They were the same old, and that these tools were very similar to the more modern tools found right in Liang Bua.

Where does the Flower Man come from?

The experts start from two possible theories to try to explain the evolutionary origin of the Flower Man. The first one maintains that it can be either a small form of Australopithecus, or a descendant of Homo Habilis.

The second theory relates the remains of the Flower Man to Homo Erectus (specifically, with the highest and latest). This second theory is based especially on the morphology of a lower molar of the Flower Man and with a fragment of his jaw.

Disappearance

We have talked about the origin of the Man of Flowers, but what about his disappearance? Why did this species disappear? Experts affirm that there could be several causes, including climatic changes, the arrival of modern humans and the eruption of volcanoes.

Down syndrome: a discarded theory

When the remains of the Man with Flowers were discovered, there are many theories that emerged, valid for redundancy.

Some even thought that it was an individual with Down Syndrome. However, a team of researchers from the University of the Midwest in Glendale (Arizona, USA), rejected this theory, through a study published in the journal PLoS ONE.

To reject the hypothesis, they measured individual bones and performed a CT scan to reconstruct the individual's brain and determine the internal structures of the skull. As a result of these tests, they were able to rule out that the Man with Flowers was a case of Down Syndrome.

Specifically, in their study they explain that the brain of the Man with Flowers is much smaller than that of a person with Down Syndrome, and that their height range is also lower.

Bibliographic references

• Argue, D., Donlon, D., Groves, C. & Wright, R. (2006). Homo floresiensis: microcephalic, pygmoid, Australopithecus, or Homo? Journal of Human Evolution, 51 (4): 360-374.

• Falk, D. Hildebolt, C., Smith, K. & Morwood, M.J. (2005). The brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis. Science, 308 (5719): 242-245.

• Sutikna, Th. Et al. (2016). "Revised stratigraphy and chronology for Homo floresiensis at Liang Bua in Indonesia", Nature.