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"Just this year, claims for a pre-erectus African in Asia have also surfaced to explain the evolution of Indonesia's Homo floresiensis, popularly known as the Liang Bua 'hobbit'. Discovered in 2003, and dated to just 95,000 to 17,000 years ago, the Liang Bua skeleton is a diminutive species significantly different from all other known humans. The discoverers proposed that the diminutive H. floresiensis evolved from a southeast Asian H. erectus group that became isolated on Flores: faced with limited resources, the erectus group dwarfed to match the small-island conditions. However, recent studies of Liang Bua wrist and foot bones reveal primitive anatomies reminiscent of H. habilis or Australopithecus, again leading some to propose a pre-erectus African origin for the species. The problem is that no comparable wrist or foot bones are known for H. erectus, making it impossible at this time to exclude a local variant of H. erectus as the ancestor of the Liang Bua 'hobbit'."

Mike Morwood, the archaeologist who excavated the Hobbits, says that the Hobbits most closely resembles the people in the article below:

Strangers In A New Land

Image: JOHN GURCHE PORTRAIT OF A PIONEER With a brain half the size of a modern one and a brow reminiscent of Homo habilis, this hominid is one of the most primitive members of our genus on record. Paleoartist John Gurche reconstructed this 1.75-million-year-old explorer from a nearly complete teenage H. erectus skull and associated mandible found in Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia. The background figures derive from two partial crania recovered at the site.