Facts About The Homo Floresiensis That Will Amaze You!

Homo Floresiensis was a species discovered in 2003. They were nicknamed hobbits.

Hobbits are the characters from the stories of J. R. R. Tolkien. These characters were short in height and had human-like features, with hairy feet.

Homo Floresiensis was given the nickname hobbits because they had small bodies and their characteristics were similar to chimpanzees. The leg bones and limb bones of Homo Floresiensis were more similar to that of chimpanzees and extinct australopithecines.

On the island of Flores, they discovered many stone tools, which indicate that early humans reached the isolated island at least a million years ago.

The species status of Homo Floresiensis initially confused some scientists, as it was believed that it should belong to a different genus, but eventually it was placed under the genus Homo. These species of hobbits were considered a sister species to Homo habilis.

Discovery Of Homo Floresiensis

On September 2, 2003, the first Homo Floresiensis fossil was discovered by scientists, along with animal remains and stone tools, in a cave named Liang Bua. Liang Bua was situated on the remote island of Indonesia named Flores island.

In 2004, Nature Paper stated that the specimen found was a skeleton and a complete skull of a 30-year-old female. It was named LB1.

According to Journal Nature, the skeleton found was 3.5 feet tall, had a skull, and an associated skeleton. The skeleton comprised a partial pelvis, limb, hand, and foot bones.

It is believed that these species lived from 38,000 to 13,000 years ago. An Australian-Indonesian team of archaeologists dedicated to studying the migration of modern humans from Asia to Australia was credited with the discovery.

A study done in 2017 to determine whether these findings were Homo Floresiensis or diseased modern Homo Sapiens, deduced that these species were from the human family, sister of the Homo Habilis species. The 30-year-old female whose skeleton was found was nicknamed Little Lady of Flores or Flo.

During the initial discovery, the bones of only nine different individuals were recovered, but in 2009 more findings were reported.

After that, some other distorted skeletons were found, making the bones a total of 14 hobbits. Some teeth were also found and were referred to as LB15.

Classification Of Homo Floresiensis

Discoverers wanted to put LB1 in the Sundanthropus Floresianus, meaning human from Flores. Still, after publication, reviewers recommended it should be genus Homo even though the body size of this species was small. According to the estimated dates, it is speculated that the Homo Floresiensis and modern humans lived on Flores island around the same period.

Two orthopedic studies published in 2007 suggested that the wrist bones of Homo Floresiensis were similar to Australopithecus and chimpanzees, and were not very similar to modern humans.

Another study done in the same year stated that other bone structures and joints (like shoulder, lower limbs, and arms) were more similar to early humans and apes when compared to modern humans. In 2008, Lee Rogers Berger and his colleagues, who were South African palaeoanthropologists, studied Homo Floresiensis and human remains from the Palau Archipelago.

They concluded that their diagnostic traits were a result of insular dwarfism in the Homo Erectus population.

In 2006, attempts to extract DNA from Homo Floresiensis were unsuccessful. Two teams attempted to extract DNA from a tooth found in 2003.

The congenital disorder hypothesis was a hypothesis that concluded that these Homo Floresiensis were Homo Sapiens with a congenital disability that led to their small-sized brain; this theory was then disapproved.

In 2007, a study was performed. It stated that Homo Floresiensis were humans who suffered from Laron syndrome.

This syndrome causes problems like small cranial capacity, small skull, and small stature within humans. When compared to Laron Syndrome patients, the endocranial capacity of Homo Floresiensis was very small. DNA samples were needed to confirm the theory, and unfortunately, DNA samples were not possible to extract.

Anatomy

Homo Floresiensis are typically identified by their small body and cranial capacity. They also have many different features compared to modern humans, like the absence of a chin and the form of their teeth. These features led to a conflict about whether Homo Floresiensis should be a whole new species or could be identified as pathological Homo Sapiens.

The size of a hobbit is known to be 1.13 m (3.7 ft). The height of LB1 was known to be 1.09 m (3.6ft), and the tallest of the nine skeletons found was LB8, which was 1.13 m (3.7 ft).

They had small bodies because of insular dwarfism, which means one acquires a small body because of a lack of resources, due to evolution.

With their small size came their small brain. LB1 had the cranial capacity of a 380-centimeter cube. Because of this small brain size, these hobbits were closer to the extinct australopithecines or chimpanzees. Apart from the size, Homo Floresiensis was similar to Homo Erectus, and Homo Erectus was a species living in southeast Asia.

The humeral torsion of this species was also very different from that of modern humans. Modern humans have a humeral torsion from 145 to 165 Celsius (293-329 Fahrenheit), but the same is 120 Celsius (248 Fahrenheit) for hobbits. This humeral torsion might have benefited arm-swinging but led to their displaced shoulders towards the front, almost like a shrugging position.

Extinction Of Homo Floresiensis

The remains found in the cave can be dated to 60000 years ago. The earliest stone tools found from the cave are dated to 50000 years ago.

The extinction of Homo Floresiensis is associated with the arrival of modern humans to the island as the fossil discovery of modern humans dates to 46000 years ago. This concluded that their disappearance was a result of modern human arrival.

Some other animals that lived on the island also disappeared, including some large animals like Stegodon Florensis Insularis and a large stork named Leptoptilos Robustus.

FAQs

Q: Did Homo Floresiensis walk upright?

A: Yes, Homo Floresiensis walked upright. William Harcourt-Smith stated that Homo Floresiensis was bipedal, but they walked differently.

Q: Why did humans evolve into such big brains?

A: The size of the brain has enlarged because of human evolution. The brain became enlarged because of the size, complexity, and number of neurons. The number of neurons increased over time, increasing brain size.

Q: Who is known as the upright man?

A: Homo Erectus is known as the upright man. Homo Erectus means the upright man. They are called upright men because of their ability to walk and stand straight with an erect stance. It is one of the extinct species from the human genus. They are known ancestors of Homo Sapiens.

Q: What was the skin color was the first human?

A: The skin color of the first human was surmised to be white. The chimpanzee is the closest living relative to humans, and they have white skin under their fur. Homo Sapiens started to have dark skin around 1.2 million to 1.8 million years ago.

Q: Are humans the smartest animal?

A: According to human standards, humans are the smartest animal on earth.

Q: What happens to jaw size over time?

A: Jaw sizes evolved and became small. Initially, humans needed large, strong jaws to eat and chew uncooked vegetables and meat. Over time, the human diet changed, and the jaw size evolved.