Riddle of the Human Hobbits : An Equinox Special

Riddle of the Human Hobbits | Australopithecine Angle | We're Not Alone | Migration Mystery | Small But Perfectly Formed | Find Out More

Dr Martin Brookes

April 2005

Australopithecine Angle

A link between Flo and Homo erectus is a plausible and compelling one, but it is by no means the only hypothesis in circulation. Finding consensus in the palaeo-anthropological community is more difficult than finding the missing link. With so many holes in the human story, opportunities for speculation are everywhere.

Her small stature and diminutive brain has led some researchers to suggest that Flo may be an offshoot of the australopithecines, a primitive group of hominids thought to be ancestral to Homo erectus. Certainly, in terms of size, there are australopithecine fossils that bear comparison to Flo. But there are serious problems with the australopithecine argument. Australopithecines have never been found outside Africa, and all fossil evidence suggests they died out about 1.5 million years ago. Flo, stuck on an Indonesian island, seems a little out of place, and, at 18,000 years old, a mere youngster by comparison. If Flo can count herself among their members, then a significant chapter of the human story will have to be rewritten.

The australopithecines first emerged about 4 million years ago. They seem to have been a diverse and successful group that roamed throughout Africa for about 2.5 million years. But the absence of australopithecine fossils beyond Africa suggests that they were probably not great colonisers.

The disappearance of australopithecines from the fossil record coincides with the gradual emergence of more modern human forms, characterised by larger body size, a more upright posture, striding limbs and an increase in brain capacity. Some have suggested that these evolutionary trends provided the necessary spur that set our ancestors on their migratory path throughout the Old World. It's a tempting tale scuppered somewhat by the recent discovery of a small and primitive 1.75 million-year-old hominid in Georgia, hundreds of miles north of Africa.

top ^