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Homo floresiensis: LB1

  • Common Name:

    The Hobbit, Little Lady of Flores, or Flo

  • Geologic Age:

    18 Ka

  • Discovery Date:

    2003

  • Discovered By:

    Peter Brown and Michael Morwood

  • Discovery Location:

    Liang Bua Cave, Flores, Indonesia

  • Cranial Capacity:

    417 cc

  • Specimen Age:

    Adult, approx 30 years old

  • Sex:

    Female

  • Estimated Weight:

    25 kg

  • Height:

    106 cm

    LB1, or Flo's, remains consists of a nearly complete skeleton that is well preserved, but fragile and not fossilized1. Recovered elements include a fairly complete cranium and mandible, right leg bones, and left innominate. Bones of the left leg, hands, and feet are less complete, while the vertebral column, sacrum, scapulae, clavicles, and ribs are only represented by fragments.

    Flo stood approximately 1 m tall, and had an endocranial volumn of approximately 380 cm3. Although LB1's cranial capacity and statue fall within range of the smallest known australopiths, other morphologies are consistent with late Homo. These traits include the degree of lateral iliac flaring, lack of a pilaster in the femur, a high bicondylar angle (approx 14 degrees), and the slightly curved tibia along the axis with an oval midshaft1,2.

    1. Brown P, Sutikna T, Morwood MJ, Soejono RP, Jatmiko, Wayhu Saptomo E, and Rokus Awe Due. 2004. A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Nature 431:1055-1061.
    2. Larson SG, Jungers WL, Tocheri MW, Orr CM, Morwood MJ, Sutikna T, Rokhus Due Awe, and Djubiantono T. 2009. Descriptions of the upper limb skeleton of Homo floresiensis. Journal of Human Evolution 57(5):555-570.

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