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December 2, 2008 4:31:27 AM CST


Homo erectus

Homo erectus news stories

2 Stories

'Hobbits' Were, Indeed, a Different Kind
of Human

Wrist-bone analysis shows link to apes

(Newser) - A new study of three wrist bones from an 18,000-year-old fossil shows that the so-called hobbits of Indonesia were, indeed, a separate human species. When the bones were discovered in 2003, scientists trumpeted the find as evidence of a smaller species, Homo floresiensis. But skeptics argued that the hobbit, at 3 feet tall with a brain the size of a grapefruit, was in fact a human afflicted by microcephaly, a brain-shrinking disorder. More »

More about:  Indonesia archaeology fossil human evolution anthropology skeleton hobbits Homo erectus homo sapien

Kenyan Fossil Rattles Human
Family Tree

Skull suggests two precursors were actually concurrent

(Newser) - Two of our ancestors apparently lived alongside each other in Africa rather than evolving from one to the next on the path to Homo sapiens , as scientists once believed. National Geographic reports that a Homo habilis skull dug up in Kenya is surprisingly young, making its 1.4 million-year-old owner a neighbor to Homo erectus rather than an evolutionary forerunner. More »

More about:  Africa Kenya evolution archaeology fossil human evolution anthropology origins of humanity homo sapiens Homo erectus

2 Stories

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