Question

What is the likely Homo ancestor for Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Homo floresiensis? Create a possible phylogenetic tree for these three human species as they diverge from their common ancestral species.

Answer 1

Homo sapiens and Neanderthals are believed to have descended from the ancient species Homo heidelbergensis. Some researchers believe that at one time, homo sapiens and neanderthals might have overlapped and might even have interbred.

Homo floresiensis were small bodied and stood about 1.1 m or 3 ft 7 in tall. Though they appeared long before the homo sapiens, about 100,000 to 60,000 years ago, a common ancestor can be traced back by constructing a phylogenetic tree.

A lot of research and reconstruction of fossil evidence has made scientists conclude that the likely homo ancestor for the three species could be Homo erectus which were the first homonins that spread from Africa to Asia and Europe. They lived about 1.8 to 3 million years ago. However, all the researchers do not agree on this as fossil study has shown that homo floresiensis show more resemblance to Australopithecus africanus than to homo erectus.