Convoluted human evolution: Hobbits & humans (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, April 24, 2017, 05:13 (2771 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

"'We can be 99 per cent sure it's not related to Homo erectus and nearly 100 per cent chance it isn't a malformed Homo sapiens," Professor Lee said."

Comment: The background of this strange group looks to lead back to Africa, where the early human species developed.

Tony: I have serious reservations about this whole thing, not the least of which is sample size. As sample sizes go, this is ridiculously small. You can not take 1 skeleton, an incomplete skeleton at that, a few teeth and random bones from as few as 12 other possible analogues and infer details about an entire species! Worse, your article here has them diverging 1.75 million years ago, the bones are estimated at 80k years old, and their tools are estimated at somewhere between 150k-50k years ago. When you use a time frame of anywhere between 1.75myo-50Kyo you can make just about any 'just so' story fit.

They found one cave with several specimens on one island. They used comparative paleontology to make these current judgements. The Denisovans and their DNA is from one finger!