Hi Peter,

I don't say that homo floresiensis was a homo sapiens derived species. If you look at the article, I say that the origins of this species are unknown still. Some people speculate that they were derived from the Homo erectus that made it to Asia and somehow ended up on Flores. There are speculations that they might even be descended from some at the moment unknown migration out of Africa, maybe of australopithecus or homo habilis.

As for the Komodo dragons, yes attacks on humans might be indeed rare. However, how much of that is due to the fact that they have been displaced to only certain areas of the islands, which are not that easily accessible by humans? They are an endangered species after all, and not that common anymore.

Komodo dragons are apex predators and they attack and eat anything, including mid-size mammals like monkeys. Now imagine what the relationship between a tiny homo floresiensis and a giant Komodo dragon would look like. The dragons would attack them if they came across them, and in turn homo floresiensis would hunt them as well. Although this is not purely my own interpretation, but I saw it in several articles I used as my sources for research.

As for the clickbait title, in order to attract readers, you need to have a title which makes people click on it. Unfortunately, a purely scientific title would have very few people clicking on it. That's writing for popular audiences 101. :)

PS: The Yamnaya are actually on my radar. In my articles section on Medium, I have about 500 draft articles about various subjects and the Yamnaya are one of those. :)