Is Homo floresiensis an Australopithecine?

1. Its adult body and brain proportions are comparable to those of the australopithecines, such as Lucy. Homo floresiensis is not descended from Homo erectus.

2. The shape of the brain case similar to Australopithecus.

3. The wrist bones do not have the palmar expansion, so Homo floresiensis may not have had the specialised form of precision grip found in modern humans. Homo floresiensis has features similar to australopithecines.

4. The brain size is similar to an australopithecine and a chimpanzee. At 380 cm³, is at the lower range of chimpanzees or the ancient australopithecines.

5. Its facial features include a medium-sized brow ridge, a retreating forehead, a small external ear opening (like an australopithecine and unlike modern humans).

6. In modern humans the symphysis — where the two halves of the lower jaw meet in the midline — is pulled forward at its lower margin to form a chin. In Homo floresiensis we see no trace of the modern human structure. Instead we see massive internal buttressing like australopithecines.

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A minority held viewpoint among palaeoanthropologists is that australopithecines moved outside of Africa. A notable proponent of this theory is Jens Lorenz Franzen, formerly Head of Paleoanthropology at the Research Institute Senckenberg. Franzen argues that robust australopithecines had reached not only Indonesia, as Meganthropus, but also China:

In this way we arrive at the conclusion that the recognition of australopithecines in Asia would not confuse but could help to clarify the early evolution of hominids ["hominins"] on that continent. This concept would explain the scanty remains from Java and China as relic of an Asian offshoot of an early radiation of Australopithecus, which was followed much later by an [African] immigration of Homo erectus, and finally became extinct after a period of coexistence.