is your heart a sponge or a fist?

homo floresiensis is one of the strangest and also most recent additions to the genus homo, discovered and announced in 2004. their place in the human evolutionary tree is still up for debate. the estimated age of the h. floresiensis fossils differ wildly, ranging from 100,000 years ago to merely 17,000, the more recent end of the estimates placing h. floresiensis' time on earth well within the range to have co-existed with modern humans of the old and new world. the ancestor that is thought to have bridged the gap between australopithecines and hominids lived 335,00 - 236,000 years ago, for perspective.

h. floresiensis is named for the island the fossils were found on, flores, indonesia, a place located in what is sometimes referred to as 'wallacea' or just past the wallace line, which separates the ecozones of asia and australia. it should be noted that very few, if any, large terrestrial animals ever migrated into this area. the majority of the fossils were discovered in liang bua cave with simple tools later classified as oldowan tools, meaning they were extremely simple and in the style of the oldest stone tools ever known.
the reason h. floresiensis has an unclear place on the evolutionary tree is largely in part due to the size of the fossils. the first skeleton discovered (also the only one with a nearly complete skull) stands at roughly 3 foot 6 inches tall. the specimen was thought to have been a child until four other skeletons were discovered with similar statures, and study showed evidence of adulthood. floresiensis had large feet, large teeth, rolled shoulders, no chin, receding foreheads, and a brain size small enough for it to be interesting that they used tools (400ccs compared to the modern human average brain size of 1500ccs). the consistency of the small size proved that this was a population of small bodied individuals and that the first specimen was not an anomaly. the ancestral and derived traits of floresiensis paint a confusing picture in terms of ancestry; their skulls resemble those of the genus homo like the recently (in terms of anthro) extinct erectus and habilus, and a skeleton that retains the more primitive traits of 3 million year old australopiths, all in a population living (possibly) only 17,000 years ago.

there are a couple theories relevant to the existance of h. floresiensis:

• homo erectus managed the crossing of waters to reach flores, and over time shrunk in size, in line with the well documented concept of island dwarfing for large-bodied mammals, i.e.: weird shit always happens on islands. elephants shrink to the size of dogs, insects grow to the size of bowling balls, the founders effect in tandem with isolation can make biological mutations the norm etc. this theory is up for debate due to floresiensis' brain size. floresiensis' brain size is 1/3rd the size of their proposed ancestor homo erectus, which is unusual considering brain size typically decreases far less in island dwarfing than the rest of the body, though it is not completely unheard of.

• it is difficult to place h. floresiensis as descendents of any earlier species than erectus on the genus homo or australopiths due to the absence of any fossils on the island or nearby in south east asia.
• floresiensis remains are modern humans suffering from pathological conditions, like microcephaly, which causes the neurocranium to be significantly smaller than that of a healthy human, myxoedematous endemic hyperthyroidism, which causes neurological defects and small stature due to delayed skeletal maturity, or laron syndrome, which causes the body to be insensitive to growth hormones and the skull to exhibit bizarre bone structure. each proposal comes with significant setback. microcephaly does not explain the primitive traits of the skeleton, endemic hyperthyroidism usually causes brachycephalic and unfused skulls and occasionally an enlarge pituitary fossa, none of which can be attributed to any of the specimen. skull structure patterns associated with laron syndrome are the functional opposite of what can be found on floresiensis. 

anyway. the jury is still out and probably will be for a while because it takes a billion years for anthropologists to agree on shit considering nobody has 100% agreed on why modern humans even learned to WALK yet, but the most popular and (imo) plausible theory is that floresiensis descended from homo erectus. those adventurous, horny bastards. thank you.

shanidar 1 is an epic fossil of homo neanderthalensis because it says fuck you to the idea that ""primitive"" humans/communities were cruel or uncaring, or that Survival Of The Fittest = those who are ""weak"" die. people really misunderstand how natural selection works and what survival of the fittest really means but that is a dw post 4 another day.

anyway

the skull of shanidar 1 shows that he received a crushing blow to the head which damaged the left eye socket, leaving him partially or completely blind, as well as a blow to the area of the brain in control of his right side, leaving his right arm atrophied and his right leg potentially paralyzed. the ear canals also have bone spurs which likely left him partially deaf.