[Taxacom] "Hobbit" (floresiensis) research

[John Grehan]

But my choice for Hominidae is purely arbitrary - it has no scientific
merit.

Substantial - its more than the eye of the beholder, it's a matter of
whether the characters have been marshaled to demonstrate the monophyly
to which the term Homo is applied.

John Grehan


> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-
> bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Kenneth Kinman
> Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 1:59 PM
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: [Taxacom] "Hobbit" (floresiensis) research
> 
> John Grehan wrote:
>  I've still yet to see anything substantial supporting the 'Homo'
> placement for the hobbit....
> In terms of clarity I would prefer to see Hominidae apply to all large
> bodied hominoids, or just to humans and those fossil taxa more closely
> related to humans than the nearest living great ape relative -
whatever
> that is. For the purposes of the forthcoming human-orangutan analysis,
> hominid is restricted to the latter.
> ****************************************
> My response:
>       Well, "substantial" is in the eye of the beholder.  I personally
> think the available evidence is more substantial for a Homo assignment
> than an Australopithecus assignment.  As I pointed out, it should be
> interesting when we find a foot of Homo habilis, Homo erectus
georgicus,
> or Homo erectus ergaster.  I suspect that they (especially habilis and
> georgicus) would be similar to the foot of Homo erectus floresiensis
(or
> alternately, Homo habilis floresiensis).
>      As for Family Hominidae, I am glad you are going to use the
> restricted (more traditional) usage.  Once we find more complete
> fossils, I might even put Ardipithecus and Orrorin back into
Hominidae.
> However, I will never expand Hominidae to include chimps, gorillas, or
> orangutans.
>        ----------Ken Kinman
> 
> 
> 
> 
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