The Primitive Wrist of Homo floresiensis and Its Implications for Hominin Evolution

doi:10.1126/science.1147143

Account Information

Guest Alerts | Access Rights | My Account | Sign In

Reports

The Primitive Wrist of Homo floresiensis and Its Implications for Hominin Evolution

Matthew W. Tocheri,¹^* Caley M. Orr,²^,3 Susan G. Larson,⁴ Thomas Sutikna,⁵ Jatmiko,⁵ E. Wahyu Saptomo,⁵ Rokus Awe Due,⁵ Tony Djubiantono,⁵ Michael J. Morwood,⁶ William L. Jungers⁴

Whether the Late Pleistocene hominin fossils from Flores, Indonesia,represent a new species, Homo floresiensis, or pathologicalmodern humans has been debated. Analysis of three wrist bonesfrom the holotype specimen (LB1) shows that it retains wristmorphology that is primitive for the African ape-human clade.In contrast, Neandertals and modern humans share derived wristmorphology that forms during embryogenesis, which diminishesthe probability that pathology could result in the normal primitivestate. This evidence indicates that LB1 is not a modern humanwith an undiagnosed pathology or growth defect; rather, it representsa species descended from a hominin ancestor that branched offbefore the origin of the clade that includes modern humans,Neandertals, and their last common ancestor.

¹ Human Origins Program, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.
² School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, AZ 85287, USA.
³ Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, AZ 85287, USA.
⁴ Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, NY 11794, USA.
⁵ The National Research and Development Centre for Archaeology, Jakarta, Indonesia.
⁶ School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tocherim{at}si.edu

Read the Full Text

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:

The Homo floresiensis cranium (LB1): Size, scaling, and early Homo affinities.: A. D. Gordon, L. Nevell, and B. Wood (2008)
PNAS 105, 4650-4655
| Abstract » | Full Text » | PDF »

Mutations in the Pericentrin (PCNT) Gene Cause Primordial Dwarfism.: A. Rauch, C. T. Thiel, D. Schindler, U. Wick, Y. J. Crow, A. B. Ekici, A. J. van Essen, T. O. Goecke, L. Al-Gazali, K. H. Chrzanowska, et al. (2008)
Science 319, 816-819
| Abstract » | Full Text » | PDF »