You may recall that discovery of a small hominid in Indonesia a few months back. Carl Zimmer has a fascinating discussion of its brain, based on analysis done at Washington University. (I originally went to the University of Arizona thinking I’d major in anthropology, if you’re wondering why this interests me.)
So here is a fascinating scenario to consider: a small-brained African hominid species expands out of Africa by 2 million years ago, bringing with it stone tools. It spreads thousands of miles across Asia, reaching Indonesia and then getting swept to Flores. It may not have undergone any significant dwarfing, since they were already small. This would change the way we think about all hominids. Being big-brained and big-bodied could no longer be considered essential requirements for spreading out of Africa. And one would have to wonder why early lineages of hominids became extinct in Africa when one branch managed to get to Flores.
Yes indeed. One does wonder. Was there a Kon-Tiki-like raft which transported those hominids across the Indian Ocean from East Africa to Indonesia, for example?
No need for a boat if the migration occurred overland and along the coast. The big question is how they then got to Flores which has been separated from Asia and the rest of the Indonesian islands for hundreds of thousands of years.
Right. I realize that overland is likely to be one of the routes, but we’ll probably never really know. Postulating is fun.