Anthropology Describe LB1- LB1 was an adult of about 30, probably female. She was only about 3.3 feet (1 m) in height with a very small brain size of 417 cc. But, at her brain size she would not be able to think well enough to do basic functions, speak, organize her thoughts, and obtain food. The size of her brain meant she wasn’t a dwarf, but she wasn’t alone there are claims to be at least 8 or even 13 uncovered. LB1’s feet are long more than 60% the length of her femur, at least 10% more than with humans. She lacked a well developed arch, somewhat curved, suggesting wasn’t fast on ground, but good in trees. Her face is distinctive, no chin to speak of. Researchers have clashed over whether LB1 really does represent a species of its own, a descendant of Homo erectus or a pathological form of Homo sapiens. These specimens may represent a new hominin species, Homo floresiensis, descended from a local population of Homo erectus or from an earlier migration of a small-bodied and small-brained hominin out of Africa. Scientists found that the LB1 skull shows greater affinities to the fossil Homo sample than to pathological modern humans. Although some superficial similarities were found between LB1 and skulls of modern humans with pathologies, additional features linked LB1 exclusively with fossil Homo. Shows that LB1 is “clearly distinct from healthy modern humans and from those exhibiting hypothyroidism and Laron syndrome. The mandibles evidence suggests mandibles “share a distinctive suite of traits that place them outside both the H.sapiens and H.erectus ranges of variation,” sharing similarities with Australopithecines and early Homo. Island dwarfism is one aspect of the more general "island rule", which posits that when mainland animals colonize islands, small species tend to evolve larger bodies, and large species tend to evolve smaller bodies. The impact it has on the discussion of LB1 is that it made species evolve into smaller bodies causing LB1 to exist. This is because they become smaller when fewer resources are available for them. Yes I believe that Homo Floresiensis is a distinct species because the evidence I found to back it up was she lived 17,000 years ago and that lumpers believe that H.floresiensis was quite possibly a distinct species also because they assert that istn not a H.erectus, but it is a descendant of a hominid that left Africa earlier than H.erectus, sharing a common ancestor.
Assignement 2 –

NM-ER 1470, Homo habilis (or Homo rudolfensis?)
Discovered by Bernard Ngeneo in 1972 at Koobi Fora in Kenya (Leakey 1973). Estimated age is 1.9 million years. This is the most complete habilis skull known. Its brain size is 750 cc, large for habilis. It was originally dated at nearly 3 million years old, a figure that caused much confusion, as at the time it was older than any known australopithecines, from which habilis had supposedly descended. A lively debate over the dating of 1470 ensued (Lewin 1987; Johanson and Edey 1981; Lubenow 1992). The skull is surprisingly modern in some respects. The braincase is much larger and less robust than any australopithecine skull, and is also without the large brow ridges typical of Homo erectus. It is however very large and robust in the face. A number of leg bones were found within a couple of kilometers, and are thought to probably belong to the same species. The most complete, KNM-ER 1481, consisted of a complete left femur, both ends of a left tibia and the lower end of a left fibula (the smaller of the two lower leg bones). These are quite similar to the bones of modern humans