The "Hobbits" of Flores: implications for the pattern of human evolution

Recent developments in research regarding the so-called "hobbits" of Flores, Indonesia, may lend support to the multilineal or "branching" view of human evolution. The weight of evidence being accumulated increasingly tends to validate Homo floresiensis, the taxonomic designation given to these specimens by their discoverers, as a distinct species of hominin rather than as deformed modern humans.* A summary of these new developments has been presented in a recent Nova program on PBS. However, not all researchers in the field of paleoanthropology have accepted this view. Alternate interpretations continue to be proposed.

The controversy over the taxonomic and evolutionary status of the Flores hobbits provides a good example of the dialectical process whereby advances in scientific knowledge are achieved. Both major camps in this controversy (i.e., those who view the hobbits as a new species and those who think they are deformed modern humans) base themselves on modern evolutionary theory. The debate is not over whether other hominin species have existed, but how these particular specimens should be interpreted within the framework of human evolution.