Homo habilis
It has been suggested that "Homo floresiensis" was descended from such an early expansion. It is not clear whether these earliest hominins leaving Africa should be considered "Homo habilis", or a form of early "Homo" or late "Australopithecus" closely related to "Homo habilis", or a very early form of "Homo erectus". In any case, the morphology of "H. floresiensis" has been found to show greatest similarity with "Australopithecus sediba", "Homo habilis" and Dmanisi Man, raising the possibility that the ancestors of "H. floresiensis" left Africa before the appearance of "H. erectus". A phylogenetic analysis published in 2017 suggests that "H. floresiensis" was descended from a species (presumably Australopithecine) ancestral to "Homo habilis", making it a "sister species" either to "H. habilis" or to a minimally "habilis"-"erectus"-"ergaster"-"sapiens" clade, and its line is older than "H. erectus" itself. On the basis of this classification, "H. floresiensis" is hypothesized to represent a hitherto unknown and very early migration out of Africa, dating to before 2.1 million years ago. A similar conclusion is suggested by the date of 2.1 Ma for the oldest Shangchen artefacts.