This means that Flores Man split off from the rest of the human line over 2 million years ago. The finding is stunning, and scientists have reacted with disbelief. The reason for their lack of belief is because in the 2 million years since Flores Man split off, we lack fossils for it or its predecessors for most of that period. We only have fossils for the last 200,000 years or so. Until very recently, we had no fossils at all for this Homo. Therefore, until a few years ago, a Homo existed for over 2 million years on Earth without leaving any known fossils.
One reason for believing that Flores Man is pre-Erectus is due to a chimpanzee-like feature in its wrist.
This also means that Flores Man must have left Africa at some point as part of a separate wave than the rest of the Homo types that left Africa. It’s not known when Flores Man left Africa. Who is Flores Man’s ancestor? This is unknown. Possibly Homo habilis or Homo Gautegensis.
The austropithecines came first. These then evolved into Homo around 2.5 million years ago. Homo probably came from Australopithecus garhi.
The implications for Bigfoot and other relict hominid studies are important. This means that relict hominids can live on the Earth for over 2 million years without leaving a single fossil that we have found.
The truth is that fossils are rarely found. On Flores Island, they were only found in caves. The jungle will eat everything else up. Chimpanzees have been around for 6 million years, but we just found the first fossils a few years ago. Nothing lasts in the African jungle.
Only certain types of landscape features retain fossils at all. Caves have the correct microclimate, but caves are not common. The Gobi Desert has yielded a lot of fossils due to its dry climate. The Rift Valley in Ethiopia is very dry, and it has also eroded in the proper way to reveal fossils embedded in its walls. Along the same lines, fossils were reportedly found in the vast eroded walls of the Grand Canyon.
It is estimated that only 5% of all species that have ever lived are represented in the fossil record. The other 95% are completely missing. That is why we have so many missing links and gaps in the fossil record that the Creationists love to gloat about.