I have currently be doing a short online course Homo floresiensis uncovered, run by the University of Wollongong. This hominin was only about one metre high and had a disproportionally small brain. In terms of my own interest in the evolution of human intelligence this raises the interesting question of whether a smaller brain means less intelligence.
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| Homo floresiensis |
First some of the background. Flores is an island in the Indonesian chain east of Bali and the Wallace line which separates the Asian fauna and flora from the Australian fauna and flora. As such it lacked, (until Homo sapiens arrived about 50,000 years ago, on his was to Australia) any Asian carnivores, herbivores or primates - with the exception of a pigmy elephant, Stegodon. and the diminutive Homo floresiensis. The only native carnivore which could threaten the hominin was a Komodo dragon.
