RI scientists refute Flores Man finding

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post/Yogyakarta

A team of Indonesian scientists refuted on Friday a claim that the skeleton of a dwarf-sized human species recently found on the remote island of Flores would rewrite the evolutionary history of mankind.

Speaking about the skeleton discovered in a limestone cave at Liang Bua, paleoanthropology professor from Gadjah Mada University, Teuku Jacob, said the skeleton was not that of a member of a novel race dubbed Homo floresiensis by Australian scientists Mike Morwood and Peter Brown, who announced their discovery last week.

"The skeleton is not a new species as claimed by these scientists, but simply a fossil of a modern human, Homo sapiens, that lived about 1,300 to 1,800 years ago," Jacob told a press conference.

He said the skeleton was of a member of the Australomelanesid race, which had dwelled across almost all of the Indonesian islands.

"So, if they (the Australian scientists) say the skeleton was the ancestor of the Indonesian people, forget it," he added.

He acknowledged, however, the skeleton was indeed dwarf-sized with a minuscule brain, and therefore, was different from common Homo sapiens.

Jacob said the relatively smaller size of the skeleton was a result of the inciter evolution, which took place as an impact of the environment -- tiny islands -- in which the species had been living in.

"The brain volume of this human being is estimated at about 380 cc, while the brain volume of a normal Homo Sapiens is 1,300 cc for females and 1,400 cc for males. With such a small brain size, it's actually even smaller than that of a chimpanzee," said Jacob.

The Australian scientists said in the journal Nature on Wednesday of last week that the species is thought to be a descendent of Homo erectus, which spread out from Africa to Asia about 2 million years ago.

It became isolated on Flores and evolved into its dwarf form to conform with local conditions, such as food shortages, they said.

The Australians made the discovery together with their Indonesian colleagues.

Contradicting the Australian claim, Jacob said the skeleton was that of a male who died when he was 30.

"This finding is based on the shape of the eye socket and the curves of the hip bone, which are more like a male's," Jacob explained.

He also criticized the announcement of the discovery without the consent of the Indonesian archeologists who participated in the work, saying it was unethical.

A similar note was also expressed by Soejono, the head of the National Archeology Institute, who said the Australians should have involved them when making the announcement considering that none of the Australian scientists were present at the time of the discovery.

Soejono said Indonesian archeologists had started the research work back in 1976 but were forced to halt it in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis.

"We continued the research later on by involving a team from Australia before we discovered the skeleton in September. We didn't immediately announce it because we needed to study the fossil," said Soejono.

The two Indonesian archeologists said that the skeleton could not be considered a fossil, but a sub-fossil.

"We would call it a fossil if everything has hardened. But we were able to find soft tissue so that we could carry out a DNA test. We couldn't do that if it was already a fossil," said Soejono.