Changing the way we look at the world
Is Homo floresiensis is still living?
I have just read an opinion piece published on TheScientist website which has the title:
“Opinion: Another Species of Hominin May Still Be Alive” click here to read it.
This article discussed the possibility that Homo floresiensis is still living on the Indonesian island of Flores. This is a fascinating suggestion and could change our understanding of what it means to be a human being.
Fossils of Homo floresiensis were discovered in 2003 at Liang Bua on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Partial skeletons of at least nine individuals have been recovered, including one complete skull, referred to as "LB1". They would have stood about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) in height.
These remains have been the subject of intense research to determine whether they were diseased modern humans or a separate species. Most investigators suggest that H. floresiensis is an early species of Homo. There is also evidence that they made and used tools.
The author of this opinion piece has collected reports by the local people called the Lio and what these people say about an animal (as they describe it) that is remarkably like a human but is not human. These include reports of sightings by more than 30 eyewitnesses, all of whom the author has spoken with directly.
Interestingly Lio folk zoology and cosmology also include stories of natural beings, specifically humans, transforming permanently into animals of other kinds. And they do this, in part, by moving into new environments and adopting new ways of life. This is a kind of evolution in reverse.
For a creation biologist this is very interesting because we believe that the natural world is broken by sin and consequently it is subject to decay. Modern humans who are descended from Adam and Eve after thousands of years of decline are probably much inferior intellectually and physically.
It seems possible that Homo floresiensis also descended from early humans and for other reasons (e.g. disease and inbreeding) declined further that modern humans.
The only way these theories are going to be conclusively tested is if living Homo floresiensis are found and that would be really interesting!
I have just read an opinion piece published on TheScientist website which has the title:
“Opinion: Another Species of Hominin May Still Be Alive” click here to read it.
This article discussed the possibility that Homo floresiensis is still living on the Indonesian island of Flores. This is a fascinating suggestion and could change our understanding of what it means to be a human being.
Fossils of Homo floresiensis were discovered in 2003 at Liang Bua on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Partial skeletons of at least nine individuals have been recovered, including one complete skull, referred to as "LB1". They would have stood about 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) in height.
These remains have been the subject of intense research to determine whether they were diseased modern humans or a separate species. Most investigators suggest that H. floresiensis is an early species of Homo. There is also evidence that they made and used tools.
The author of this opinion piece has collected reports by the local people called the Lio and what these people say about an animal (as they describe it) that is remarkably like a human but is not human. These include reports of sightings by more than 30 eyewitnesses, all of whom the author has spoken with directly.
Interestingly Lio folk zoology and cosmology also include stories of natural beings, specifically humans, transforming permanently into animals of other kinds. And they do this, in part, by moving into new environments and adopting new ways of life. This is a kind of evolution in reverse.
For a creation biologist this is very interesting because we believe that the natural world is broken by sin and consequently it is subject to decay. Modern humans who are descended from Adam and Eve after thousands of years of decline are probably much inferior intellectually and physically.
It seems possible that Homo floresiensis also descended from early humans and for other reasons (e.g. disease and inbreeding) declined further that modern humans.
The only way these theories are going to be conclusively tested is if living Homo floresiensis are found and that would be really interesting!
