Homo floresiensis Foot, Disarticulated

KO-396-D $265.00

Disarticulated left foot of Homo floresiensis. An Articulated version of the foot, as well as other H. floresiensis products can be found here.

At the time of its discovery, H. floresiensis was the subject of much debate centering on whether it is a new human species, a pathological Homo sapiens, or a case of insular dwarfism of a Homo erectus population. However, studies using cladistic and morphological analysis suggest that Homo floresiensis is a separate species from Homo erectus and may share a common ancestor with Homo habilis, challenging the notion that Homo erectus was the only hominin to leave Africa before Homo sapiens did so about 180,000yrs ago.

The entire lower limb skeleton of Homo floresiensis exhibits a mosaic of primitive and derived (more human-like) features, providing a glimpse of a bipedal hominin that existed on the Indonesian island of Flores some 90,000 to 50,000 years ago. Studying the morphology of the feet can provide significant insight into the evolution of bipedalism. In the case of LB1, the foot is relatively long compared to the femur and tibia, proportions not seen in hominins, but in some African apes. The foot exhibits some human-like qualities such as a non-grasping big toe, while retaining some primitive features such as long curved toes and lack of a foot arch. This would result in a walking gait not seen in modern humans. Since the foot lacks an arch, there would have been limitations in efficient running and walking. This mosaic of features has led some to theorize that the ancestry of Homo floresiensis is earlier than that of Homo erectus.

The Bone Clones® Fossil Hominid line is composed of discoveries from anatomically modern humans, archaic humans, early Homo, early hominins, and other hominids. The majority of the casts in this line have been recreated by our team of anatomical sculptors. Some are reconstructions made by anthropology professionals using fragmentary elements from original discoveries and extrapolating the missing parts from those (i.e. Neanderthal skeleton).