The Indonesian Hobbit

The Indonesian HobbitPaige D.C.SBI4UMr. WattsMay 2 - 2012

Table of ContentsTitle PageTable of ContentsIntroHobbit InformationDiscovery Area and During the Hobbits LifetimeWhen They Were AroundDeformed Human or New Branch?Where Did They Come From?ConclusionReferencesPicture Web References

Intro

Youre thinking about him arent you?If you are, youre pretty close!

Hobbit Information

Hobbits were only 1 meter tall, thats 3 feet, with grapefruit-sized brains that equal the size of a babies, which is 1/3 of the size of today's adults brain.

Their feet display both modern human and ape traits, and their teeth and wrists look like came from an apeThey may have had a pot-belly appearanceHobbits lived between 17,000 and 100,000 years agoAnd, did I mention the first skeleton discovered was a female?

Any guesses as to if they looked more like apes orhumans?

Artists renderings of:A Male HobbitA Female HobbitWhich would you rather??

They were intelligent too. Evidence of charred animal remains and stone tools proved they cooked over fires and were capable of using and making tools. They are also believed to be social and possibly live in bands, since there are same-age fossils that have been discovered in the same cave.

Animal BonesStone Tools

Discovery Area and During The Hobbits Lifetime There have been a dozen or so of these 'Hobbits' dug up so far on the island of Flores, hence their scientific name, Homo floresiensisThey were found in Liang Bua cave 40 meters (130ft) underground in 2003She was dated to be 18,000 years old, while the rest of the specimens that have been dug up since are only 17,000 years old

Indonesian Island of FloresLiang Bua Cave

When the female was dug up, she was first thought to be a child due to her size, but after examining her worn molars researcher Due Awe determined that she was indeed an adultThis was a tiny cave woman living at the same time as our more modern ancestorsHobbits, however, lived according to the island rule; animals larger than rabbits shrunk due to limited amounts of food, and those smaller grew due to the absence of predatorsTwo examples of this are the elephants that shrunk to the size of a cow, and rats that grew to the size of dogs!

And.Pygmy Elephants

Remember this guy?This creature on his shoulder is a rat that, because of the island rule, grew to an enormous size.

When They Were Around These hobbit skeletons are between 17,000 and 18,000 years old. That's yesterday in geological termsAfter finding 45 stone tools in Wolo Sedge in the Soa Basin of Flores, researchers found that the stone tools were about a million years old. This means that these hobbits were present on Flores at least one million years agoThe arrival of Homo floresiensis, or rather it's ancestors, is believed to be the cause of the mass deaths of giant tortoises and the Stegondon sondaari, a pygmy elephant, as the quick decline of these two animal populations were seeming to be non-selective, possibly representing a localized or regional extinction

Stone Tools

Giant TortoisesPygmy Elephants

Deformed Human or New Branch?So where did homo Floresiensis come from??NOBODY KNOWS!!!!!

I guess thats the beauty of it; we get figure it out!Well, there are three sides to this coin. One side is that hobbits are just deformed humans, and that's thatCritics say that hobbits are just deformed humans in which their appearance could be blamed on a range of genetic disorders, such as dwarfism or microcephaly (which causes the brain to be smaller than normal)The second theory is that they are just the ancestors of the pygmy-like people who still live in Flores

Like this old man, Victor Jehabut. However, Mr. Jehabut says that he is not a descendant of the hobbits, but merely childhood hardships are what caused his 4ft appearance.

These critics are very much in the minority now states Chris Stringer, research leader in human origins at the Natural History Museum in LondonMany tests and studies have been done, and the general consensus is that Homo floresiensis is in fact, a previously unknown branch of a pre-modern hominid lineageA study of her brain size led to the possibility of it being so small because of her isolation on Flores, but dwarfism could actually have contributed to the evolution of the hobbitFurther analysis of her tiny skull shows that she wasn't a deformed Homo sapien. By comparing her skull, specifically the part that surrounds the brain (called the neurocranium) to modern human and ancient hominid skulls, the hobbit shows similarities to fossilized skulls that are 1.5 million years old from Africa and Eurasia

Hobbit Skull (Left) VS Modern Human Skull (Right)

How could this be a deformed Homo sapien, with a skull similar to that of 1.5 million year old skulls?!I must say, this proves the microcephaly theory wrong Another study was done on her feet, which are much longer in relation to her thigh when she's compared to modern humansIt's the kind of foot you expect to find in that first hominid that left Africa and colonized Europe and Asia. says William Jungers, researcher at the Stony Brook University Medical Centre in New YorkIt was preserving features that date back to 3 million years agoThis is a new species that no pathology or one syndrome could account for the morphological features of the hobbit. It's too primitive and too unusual of a combination

Where Did They Come From?So what does this all mean exactly?Well, the hobbits discovery changed sciences' understanding of human evolution almost overnight! The hobbit is an entirely new chapter to the book of human evolution, and we don't even know where it goes!One theory is that Homo floresiensis evolved from Homo erectus and once it reached Flores, it succumbed to the island rule that I mentioned earlier, resulting in it's tiny stature, but this process has never been documented in a human population, so could the hobbits be the only hominids to have succumbed to the island rule?

Homo erectus

Or could it be a descendant from a more primitive relative of Homo erectus, such as Homo habilis and left Africa before Homo erectus ever did?If that's the case, then what did those that left evolve into before they reached Flores?What if the ancestors of the hobbit were something more primitive than Homo erectus, they left Africa, some managed to travel to Flores, and others went back to Africa? Could this be the answer?

Homo habilis

Are there other, unknown hominids that evolved in Asia that we humans don't know of?If so, there's an entirely missing chapter of human evolution in Asia, which would be very interesting as we have absolutely no record of it's evolution!This theory also means that Homo erectus evolved in Asia which would again, be very interesting and would prove how little we know about human evolution

Migration of Hominids

ConclusionSo there are still many questions to be asked, and answered, such as: Who were the hobbits ancestors? Where did they come from? What were their interactions, if any, with the modern humans of the time? and Why are they extinct? I've only one theory for one question, and that's why they're extinct. One theory is that they died after a massive volcanic eruption on the island 12,000 years ago. That's all I have for you. The only way to find out who Homo floresiensis's ancestors are, are to find the bones of them and see whether they resemble Homo erectus or a more primitive hominid. In all, what we have before us is an entirely new branch to our human lineage, and we've a lot of work ahead of us to find out where exactly on our tree does this branch fit into. I guess human evolution is more complicated than what we previously thought eh?

ReferencesBua, L. (2010, March 7). Indonesian 'hobbit' challenges evolutionary theory. InThe Jakarta Post. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/03/07/indonesian-039hobbit039-challenges-evolutionary-theory.html

Indonesian Hobbits Werent Human, Say Scientists. (2009, January 23). Infinding Dulcinea. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/science/2009/jan/Indonesian--Hobbits--Weren-t-Human--Say-Scientists.html

Studies from head to toe show Indonesian 'hobbit' is a new type of human. (2009, May 7). InEBSCOhost. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from Canadian Reference Centre.When the 'Hobbits' Conquered Indonesia (2010, March 19). In Fox News. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/19/hobbits-conquered-indonesia/

Picture Web ReferencesHobbit Man - http://coolsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2009_03_29_archive.html

Frodo - http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Frodo_Baggins

Human Evolution Time Line - http://www.macroevolution.net/human-evolution-timeline.html#.T5iuzbO0ySo

Skull In Hand - http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/19/hobbits-conquered-indonesia/

Skeleton - http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2010/03/19/archaeologists-uncover-hobbit-fossils/#slide=4

Victor Jehabut - http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2010/03/19/archaeologists-uncover-hobbit-fossils/#slide=5

Cave Entrance - http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2010/03/19/archaeologists-uncover-hobbit-fossils/#slide=7

Two Skulls - http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/science/2009/jan/Indonesian--Hobbits--Weren-t-Human--Say-Scientists.html

Homo erectus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Homo_erectus_new.JPG

Picture Web References ContdHomo habilis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Homo_habilis-2.JPGMigration? - http://discovermagazine.com/2003/mar/featsurvivorPygmy Elephants - http://article.wn.com/view/2010/06/17/Dredging_destroying_pygmy_elephant_monkey_habitat_activist_0/

Giant Tortoises - http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/giant-tortoise-singapore-zoo

Island of Flores - http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/10/11/international/20051012_ISLAND_GRAPHIC.html

Hobbit Female - http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/aussie-scientists-spark-hobbit-row/story-e6frf7l6-1111115717732

Grape Fruit - http://depositphotos.com/1905397/stock-photo-Hand-holding-a-grapefruit.html

Animal Bones - http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2010/03/19/archaeologists-uncover-hobbit-fossils/

Stone Tools - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100317-hobbits-flores-stone-tools-million/