Five Human Species You May Not Know About

[NomoneyNohoney]

https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/anc ... n-species/

Homo sapiens is currently the only member of the genus Homo alive. There’s only one species of human—but it wasn’t always so.

[XFool]

Don't forget. There's also Homo Brexitus...

Sorry!

"Anthropologists also refer fondly to the species as “hobbits” due to their diminutive size: They would have stood a bit over 3 feet tall. The first remains of H. floresiensis were discovered in 2003.

These human relatives had small brains (around 400 cubic centimeters) but hunted prey on the island and made tools very similar to those made by Homo erectus, a species with much larger brains."

This puzzles me. Let's say I am about twice as tall as a Homo Floresiensis - a linear measurement. So I would, naively, expect my brain volume to be about eight times larger, so 8 x 400cc = 3200cc. Or, if we arbitrarily take a smaller multiplier of four, then 1600cc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_size#Humans

"The volume is around 1260 cm3 in men "

So, do I, a human, have a "large brain" compared to the "small brain" of H. Floresiensis? Or were they just small?

[mc2fool]

It's a fast(-ish) moving field of study, with new discoveries and redrawing of the tree happening regularly....

Around 25 years ago I was on a Homo erectus dig (as an avocational field archaeologist; been on around a dozen field projects in all, more interesting than lying on a beach in summer IMO!) and one of the proper archaeologists brought along a copy of the recently published From Lucy to Language, co-authored by the man who discovered Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy), Donald Johanson, and I bought a copy myself as soon as I got home.

For anyone interested in the subject this is a fantastic book, covering every hominid species known up to then and is jam packed full of photographs of the type specimens* for each species, mostly life sized skulls, and many other specimens. Oh, and as a 28x31 cms hardcover with 278 pages and at over 2kg it looks great on the coffee table! The only thing now is that it's well out of date. No antecessor, floresiensis, luzonensis or denisovans, and the earlier tree has been, well, adjusted around somewhat.

It is, however, still a fantastic book and while I paid, IIRC, £30 for mine I am gobsmacked to see that Amazon has an, OK, used copy of the 2006 revised edition (presumably including at least antecessor & floresiensis) for less than a fiver, which is a real steal for a book of this quality, even if it'll still be a bit out of date (any book you buy on the subject will be within a year or two anyway). If you'd prefer a new copy they've got one for £115!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucy-Language-Revised-Updated-Expanded/dp/0743280644

There's no "look inside" for that one but there is for the 1997 edition (the one I have), so you can get an idea of what it's like:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucy-Language-Edgar-Blake/dp/0297833286

* The type specimen is the one that defines and first gave the name to that particular species of hominid.