On the left is the skull of the Homo Floresiensis. On the right is the skull of the modern human.
The Homo floresiensis is a possible species of the genus "Homo". It was discovered in 2003 on the Indonesian Island of Flores. It was discovered in the "Liang Bua Cave". There were also 7 additional skeletons found in the cave and besides the skeletons, there were also stone tools recovered from the area.
What is so special about the Homo floresiensis is that is could be a possible species of the genus "homus" that was still surviving a short 12,000 years ago, making it the longest surviving non-modern human species besides the Neanderthals.
The anatomy of the skeleton extracted from the site is easily identifiable through its small body and small brain size. The specie was estimated to be at most 1.06m tall and it's range was far shorter than normal humans.
The findings could have numerous effects on modern understandings of the genus "Homus", though not very profound effects. However, it could tell us that the human species is more vulnerable than ever to the evolutionary forces than we think it could.
The Homo floresiensis was alive until 12,000 years ago and it is a very short time as compared to the whole life-span of the planet. Just imagine, 12,000 years from now and there is a whole new completely different species of humans! Humans are already probably starting to evolve now!
The only way we would know is to wait....
Here is the URL of the News article http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/333112/description/Taking_the_measure_of_a_hobbit
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