Homo floresiensis was a very interesting species within the genus homo because of how different they were from many of the other homo species that existed at the same time. Homo floresiensis was confined to the island of Flores, located in modern day Indonesia, which is a very small isolated island. This isolation caused Homo floresiensis to evolve much differently than its contemporaries in the homo genus, Homo sapiens, Homo erectus, and Neanderthals. The most obvious difference between Homo floresiensis and other Homo species was their size. Homo floresiensis was only about three feet tall, when compared with more robust Homo species like Homo erectus and Neanderthals this is very small, and even in comparison with a more gracile species like Homo sapiens they are still very small for the genus Homo. Their size was initially thought to be caused by evolutionary dwarfism due to them being isolated on Flores. This means that some group of Homo erectus got isolated on this island and due to limited resources over time evolved to be much smaller so they would need significantly less resources to survive. However, recent study has suggested that Homo floresiensis is not an offshoot of Homo erectus, but actually evolved from Homo habilis which is much more similar in terms of size and features, though isolation on Flores could still explain why they didn’t evolve to be a similar size to the other Homo species they lived concurrently with. In addition to their size Homo floresiensis is much more primitive than the other Homo species that lived around the same time as them. They have significantly smaller brains, about the size of a chimps, have much longer arms, have no foot arch, have more primitive teeth and have a closer foot to thigh length ratio than modern humans. Despite all these primitive traits Homo floresiensis has a lot of shared behavior with their more physically derived contemporary Homo species. Tools and animal carcasses indicate that Homo floresiensis hunted and ate animals rather than scavenging them. This behavior is more in line with Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens than it is with species that Homo floresiensis is closer to physically like Australopithecus afarensis and Homo habilis. They also had to have migrated a great distance to get from Africa to Flores. This again is more in line with Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens than it is with more primitive hominids. This long migration is very interesting to me because with the arch less foot, short legs, and long feet this should have been a very painful journey. Homo floresiensis is also interesting because it drastically changes the expected timeline for the genus Homo migrating out of Africa. Dating of ancient stone tools has shown that Homo floresiensis was on Flores as early as two million years ago. Previously it was thought that the earliest migration out of Africa was made by Homo erectus around one million years ago. This migration is also interesting because anthropologists had previously thought that only hominins with more derived traits like those seen in Homo erectus would have been capable of making such a long journey. This along with the fact that Homo floresiensis ended up on such an isolated island makes me wonder if they got to Flores by some other way other than walking. Ultimately Homo floresiensis is a very interesting if somewhat confusing species of Homo that has changed the way we think about hominins migrating out of Africa.