In an opinion edit for The Scientist, while promoting his latest book “Ape and Human,” Gregory Forth – Oxford Ph.D. and now retired professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta – argued that homo floresiensis (a human species thought to be extinct) could still be alive in the Forests of Flores Island leading societies undiscovered by the world.
The anthropologist argued that other scientists and paleontologists overlooked indigenous knowledge and dismissed accounts of “ape-men” seen in the forests of Flores- which he believed should have been explored and investigated to the fullest because the last of homo floresiensis may still be alive.
[Read: How to Grow a 100-Year-Old Forest in Your Backyard in Just 10 Years]
The professor also argued this on the basis of the fact that the local Zoology by the lio- the inhabitants of Flores island- contains too many stories of humans shapeshifting into animals to adapt to new environments- which felt like more than a co-incidence.
The locals identify these creatures as animals who don’t have the complex languages or technologies that humans do- they are only similar to humans in appearance.
According to scientists, though, homo floresiensis last walked on earth about 50 000 years ago. These estimates were drawn from a skeleton of a homo floresiensis which was found and examined in 2003.
Scientists had initially thought it to be 12 000 years old, but after further analysis, they reached the conclusion that the homo floresiensis last lived 50 000 years ago.
Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of The Sized delivered to your inbox daily.
