Whence Homo floresiensis ? - The Fossil Chronicles - page 178

was also shaped like Lucy's. Put another way, unlike long-legged Homo
erectus, Hobbit had “very, very short legs, both absolutely and relatively. ” 77
LB1's height of approximately three feet six inches fell far short of
the averages for pygmies . 78 This means that hobbits had more mass
packed on their tiny frames than modern people who weigh about the
same. They were just plain stockier. The bony shoulder of Homo flo-
resiensis also shared some primitive features with Australopithecus and
early Homo (including the Dmanisi youth and WT 15K), which resulted
in upper arms that were rotated a bit forward where they fit into the
shoulder girdle compared with the configuration in living people (see
figure 26). 79 Hobbit's wrists were also primitive, so much so that the few
wrist bones that are available in LB1's skeleton resemble the same bones
of African apes and very early hominins rather than those from more
recent humans . 80
Even though the most controversial part of LB1's anatomy has been
her tiny brain, I find the most tantalizing part of her skeleton to be at the
other end of her body. Hobbit had the most amazing feet. 81 Compared
with her diminutive legs, LB1's feet were considerably longer than those
of any other hominin—living or dead. To be as long, your foot would
have to stretch from your knee to your ankle ! 82 In this regard, LB1's
foot was somewhat chimplike. Like those of bipedal hominins, however,
LB1's big toe was lined up next to her other toes instead of sticking out
to the side, like apes' big toes. (Recall that Little Foot's big toe was more
apelike.) On the other hand (or foot), her big toe was stubby compared
with the rest, which were longer and somewhat curved, like those of
apes. LB1 also had flat feet. Bill Jungers, whose team described the foot,
is certain that hobbits could walk (if a bit clumsily) but thinks they
would have had difficulty with brisk walking or running long distances.
seeking hobbit's evolutionary roots
Scientists have an arsenal of sophisticated techniques for determining
the most likely positions that extinct species occupied on the hominin