Contents

Prologue

Timeline of species

1 The discovery

Nicknaming Homo floresiensis ‘the Hobbit’

2 Controversy from the start

3 Fitting Homo floresiensis on the family tree

What’s in a name?

4 Fossil bones of the So’a Basin, Flores: The ancestors of Homo floresiensis?

5 Float, walk or swim?: How did Homo floresiensis get to Flores?

6 Big surprise in the Philippines: Homo luzonensis

Reactions to Homo luzonensis

Let’s go digging

Appendix A: Cousins by the dozens

Appendix B: Hominin fossil discoveries

Glossary

Notes

Acknowledgements

Index