‘Hobbits’, the extinct human species called Homo floresiensis., UPSC.

Homo floresiensis

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Context: A new study on the ‘hobbits’ of Indonesia’s Flores island, the extinct human species called Homo floresiensis, provides clues on their mysterious origin.

Details

Nickname:The Hobbit.
Discovery Date:
Where Lived:In Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia.
When Lived:About 100,000 – 50,000 years ago.

Descendant theory

1^st theory suggest: Dwarfed descendant of early Asian Homo erectus.
2^nd Theory suggest: Ancient hominin from Africa like Homo habilis or the famous ‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis).

Characteristics

Unique Appearance: Short with a very small skull, definite brow ridge, short legs and large, flat feet.
Important Homo floresiensis fossils: labelled Liang Bua 1 or LB1,
Diet: Current evidence suggests it involved both plants and uncooked meat, with tooth wear indicating a tough, fibrous diet that required lots of forceful chewing.
Height:106 cm (3 ft 6 in) - estimate from a female skeleton.
Weight:30 kg (66 lbs) - estimate from a female skeleton.

How was Homo floresiensis different in appearance from Homo sapiens?

Physical traits that were different to those of modern humans included a tiny skull with a small braincase, protruding brow ridges and no prominent chin.
In comparison, Homo sapiens have a high and rounded braincase, a small face tucked under the forehead, small and separated brow ridges and a chin on the lower jaw.

Recent discovery and findings

Hominin fossils

The discovery of three hominin fossils dating to 700,000 years from Mata Menge in the So’a Basin of central Flores, 75 kilometres east of a huge cave called Liang Bua, where all Homo floresiensisfossils have been found.
Mata Menge hominins are an early form of Homo floresiensisof Liang Bua and thus directly ancestral to it.
Hominins are extinct and surviving organisms within the human lineage, after the split from the ancestors.

The newly discovered fossils.

The new study found that the three fossils had slightly smaller jaws and teeth thanHomo floresiensis. This suggests that their small body size evolved early in the history of Flores hominins.
From the arm bone, the team estimated that the hominin stood 100 centimetres (cm) tall, around 6 cm shorter than the estimated body height of the 60,000-year-old Homo floresiensisskeleton from Liang Bua.

These hominins likely witnessed a drastic body size reduction from large-bodied Asian Homo erectus sometime between 1 and 0.7 million years ago.
The new study supports the theory that the hobbits may owe their origin to a group of the early Asian hominins (Homo erectus) becoming isolated on remote Flores perhaps a million years ago.

Implication of the discovery

The discovery offers support to the idea that an evolutionary process known as island dwarfism tinkered with the genetics of a group of large-bodied Homo erectus that somehow made it from the continental landmass of Asia to the isolated island of Flores, perhaps one million years ago or more.

Island dwarfism

Island dwarfism, or insular dwarfism, is the reduction in size of large animals over a number of generations.

Possible cause: One is based on the idea that a smaller territory means a smaller food supply.

A process where only smaller animals trapped on the island survive, as food declines to a borderline level.

Population declines and, as smaller animals need fewer resources and smaller territories, they will survive longer.

Eventually food sources replenish, and the survivors flourish.

Smaller size is also advantageous from a reproductive standpoint, as it leads to shorter gestation periods and generation times

About Flores island

Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia.
Portuguese traders and missionaries came to Flores in the 16th century, named it as Flores.
Location: The island of Flores is a long and narrow island in East Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia, at the Eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago.
The Komodo dragon is endemic to Flores and surrounding islands.
Volcanoes around Bajawa, Ruteng and Moni.