Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
J Hum Evol. 2009 Nov;57(5):623-39. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.05.002. Epub 2009 Jul 23.
The announcement of a new species, Homo floresiensis, a primitive hominin that survived until relatively recent times is an enormous challenge to paradigms of human evolution. Until this announcement, the dominant paradigm stipulated that: 1) only more derived hominins had emerged from Africa, and 2) H. sapiens was the only hominin since the demise of Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. Resistance to H. floresiensis has been intense, and debate centers on two sets of competing hypotheses: 1) that it is a primitive hominin, and 2) that it is a modern human, either a pygmoid form or a pathological individual. Despite a range of analytical techniques having been applied to the question, no resolution has been reached. Here, we use cladistic analysis, a tool that has not, until now, been applied to the problem, to establish the phylogenetic position of the species. Our results produce two equally parsimonious phylogenetic trees. The first suggests that H. floresiensis is an early hominin that emerged after Homo rudolfensis (1.86Ma) but before H. habilis (1.66Ma, or after 1.9Ma if the earlier chronology for H. habilis is retained). The second tree indicates H. floresiensis branched after Homo habilis.
宣布一个新物种，弗洛瑞斯人，一个生存到相对较近时期的原始原始人，这对人类进化的范例构成了巨大的挑战。在此之前，主导的范例规定：1）只有更衍生的原始人从非洲出现，2）智人是自直立人和尼安德特人灭绝以来唯一的原始人。对弗洛瑞斯人的抵制非常强烈，争论集中在两套相互竞争的假设上：1）它是一种原始原始人，2）它是现代人，要么是矮小的形式，要么是病态的个体。尽管已经应用了一系列分析技术来解决这个问题，但仍未得出结论。在这里，我们使用分支分析，这是一种直到现在才应用于该问题的工具，来确定物种的系统发育位置。我们的结果产生了两个同样简约的系统发育树。第一个表明，弗洛瑞斯人是一种早期的原始人，它出现在鲁道夫原始人（1.86Ma）之后，但在能人（1.66Ma）之前（如果保留能人更早的年代，则在 1.9Ma 之后）。第二棵树表明，弗洛瑞斯人在能人之后分支。
