Résumé
The discovery of Homo floresiensis, reported in 2004, has upended the definition of the genus Homo. This species had a bizarre combination of Homo-like gracile cranio-dental morphology and Australopithecus-like small brain and body size, and it had survived on an isolated island of Indonesia until recently (about 50,000 years ago). This markedly contrasts with the known general trends of body and brain size increases that occurred on the continental Homo populations during the last 2 million years. Later discoveries further informed us that such “non-mainstream” evolution of Homo occurred in other reasons at the continental margin (Homo naledi from South Africa, first reported in 2015, and Homo luzonensis from the Philippines, reported in 2019). I will talk about my experience describing cranial and dental fossils of the original Homo floresiensis materials from Liang Bua Cave (~60,000 years ago) as well as older Homo floresiensis remains from So’a Basin (~700,000 years ago) that hold a key to understanding its evolutionary origins.
