The man from Flores was not a new species but with Down’s syndrome

It was ultimately neither a Hobbit nor a new species of hominid … but a modern man, suffering from Down’s syndrome. The man from Flores, whose bones were discovered in 2004, gave hope for the discovery of a unknown species. Two studies published on August 4 in the journal of the American Academy of Sciences (PNAS) are enough to shower enthusiasm: what was considered “the most important discovery in human evolution for 100 years” was in fact a simple error of analysis.

Some kind of Hobbit?

In 2004, in the Liang Bua cave, located on the island of Flores, off the coast of Indonesia, several human remains dating from 15,000 years ago were discovered. Most of the bones are fragmentary, but one skeleton stands out, the LB1. Unlike the others, his skull and femurs are almost intact. Their analysis makes it possible to draw up a first profile, to say the least unusual: he would have measured 1.06 meters and the volume of his skull did not exceed 380 milliliters, that is to say a third of that of modern man. A 3D visualization also shows an asymmetry of the face. Comparing it to previous human species, theHomo erectus and Australopithecus, no similarity emerges. It doesn’t take more: the researchers baptize it Homo floresiensis, the man of Flores, that is to say a new species.

Moderate microcephaly

The re-analysis of the data brought down the breath with a certain brutality. This skeleton is not the representative of a new species, only that of a human being who has developed a birth defect. We are therefore far from the “Hobbit” fantasized by the first team. And for good reason: some mistakes were made during the first series of analyzes. The skull is actually 430 milliliters. Admittedly small for a modern human being, but not unusual. “Of nearly 200 syndromes for which microcephaly is a symptom, more than half include facial asymmetry, and more than a quarter also include short stature,” underlines the study.

A man of a meter 26

Because the extrapolation from the femur to estimate the size of the Flores man is also biased: it is based on a formula derived from the population of African Pygmies. In fact, he would have measured 1.26 meters, which corresponds to certain populations in the region. “The difference is significant, and this new appearance falls into the category of modern men with Down syndrome (trisomy 21) living in the same geographic area,” says Robert Eckhardt, who participated in both studies. ” Unusual does not mean unique », He recalls, commenting on the other study. “The characteristics originally described are not so rare that a new species of hominid had to be invented. When we first saw the bones, many of us spotted developmental issues, but we did not make a specific diagnosis since the bones were fragmented. Over time, several pieces of evidence have suggested that it is a trisomy 21. “