Homo floresiensis was one of the Archaic species found in Indonesia. It is a recently discovered species that turned out to be much older than originally thought. They were found on an island and were isolated from the world. They resemble the stature of Lucy, who is part of Australopithecines afarensis genus. However, Homo floresiensis is about 100,000 years old while Lucy is around 3 million years old. This is a very interesting case that anthropologists have called “evolutionary dwarfism”. They are related to Homo erectus but they look different because of their smaller brain, body size, and primitive features. This occurred because of the limited resources and genetic diversity available to them. It’s similar to how a goldfish and Plecostomus (sucker-fish) will only grow to what their tank allows. If given a large space and abundant resources, they will grow to be much larger than how we normally see them. If they are in a small tank and fed on a regimented schedule, they will only be about 3-4 inches. This is similar to what happened to this branch of the Homo genus. However, they share a commonality in they use stone tools and ate meat. This shows the diverse nature of evolution and how evolutionary dead ends can happen. Genetics are so variable that we can see such a wide spectrum of developments when studying the fossil record all over the world. Especially with this specific branch, we can see what isolation can do to a species and how we can have so many different combinations of traits. Homo floresiensis is very similar but so different from Homo erectus but these traits were preserved because no new genetics were being introduced. The species did not need to adapt or evolve further than being dwarfed because they were contained in a constant environment that gave them what they needed at the time.

I think these discoveries of Neanderthals and Homo floresiensis aid in the understanding about how the environment heavily impacts how organisms develop. With Neanderthals being much larger and Homo floresiensis being smaller, it gives a variety of traits to not only study but compare and contrast to each other and to humans today. We can see how humans may or may not develop with the changing environment and what can happen if we become stagnant or the planet gets much hotter or colder. It helps to see what was important to our ancestors and what led them to be successful or what lead to the end of an evolutionary branch. We learn about how hunting started and with what tools it started with. The transitions from hunting and gathering to agriculture would be a very pivotal time because this is when the organism becomes self-sustaining. The differences of these two genus help scientists understand their cultures and how the world was when they were alive and roaming it, like whether or not the most successful species lived in groups or solitary lives. They can also learn when war began or when fighting for something other than resources began. I find this very interesting because disputes about beliefs is specific to humans because fighting used to be only over mates and resources. Not only have the species evolved, but so have their conflicts.