ScienceNerds.INFO

Location of Palau

A fascinating discovery has been made that may shed light on the Homo florensis mystery. Thousands of bones (dated 900 to 2,900 years old) have been found in caves in the Pacific island of Palau, the older of which are of humans 3 to 4 foot in height. Although the estimated brain size is twice that of the “Flores Hobbits”, the bones exhibit primitive characteristics.

Researchers are leaning on classifying these remains as Homo sapiens, with insular dwarfism, the island-dwarfing evolutionary effect.

See more on the story below:

National Geographic:
Ancient Bones of Small Humans Discovered in Palau

Scientific American: Hobbit Watch:
Tiny bones from Palau don’t detract from hobbit’s uniqueness

Mystery Skulls

Comments(0)

I don’t think so.

You might have heard the lastest on the Flores hobbit story; that some Australian researchers are claiming they were actually modern humans suffering from cretinism (myxoedematous endemic cretinism, to be precise).  The researchers include iodine deficiency as a cause of the cretinism.

Iodine deficiency is usually caused by a lack of seafood (in the days before idodized salt, of course), but remember the skeletons were found only 15 miles from the ocean shore. So my first thought was… when has 15 miles ever been much of a barrier to stone age hunters and gatherers? This just doesn’t add up. 

An article on Scientific American shows most scientists don’t agree with this interpretation, and it is pointed out that the researchers didn’t even read the data correctly:

Scientific American: Hobbit Watch:
Experts slam the cretin hypothesis

Comments(0)

Looks like my second guess might have been right (or closer to the truth). Assuming this wrist bone study was done right, it sure tilts the likelihood strongly in the direction of the Hobbit being a non-human species (but still a primitive, upright hominid). It may not be exactly Homo erectus, but something along those lines. This makes the find more fascinating than simply dwarfed or diseased modern humans. As always, I’m interested in the truth, whatever that turns out to be.

There are similar cases of a branch of a primitive species surviving on much longer in isolation. Sometimes it’s as if an island’s isolation can trap it’s species in time. You might know that mammoths died out around 9,000-10,000 years ago (7,000-8,000 BC). However, a dwarfed species of mammoth (also dwarfed by the island-dwarfing effect originally proposed to explain the Hobbit’s small stature) persisted on Wrangel Island (off Siberia) until 3700 years ago (1700 BC)! By 1700 BC, civilization was well underway in Egypt, the Middle East, China, India and elsewhere, and there were still little mammoths running around up there! The Great Pyramid at Giza and the Sphinx had been built nearly a thousand years before. Imagine what an interesting pet that could have been for the Pharoah, had they known about them.

Scientists: Hobbit wasn’t a modern human

Homo floresiensis on Wikipedia

Comments(0)

You may remember the hype and speculation about the “Flores Hobbit”, bones of which were first dug up on the Indonesian Island of Flores in 2003. The scientists found prehistoric remains of what appeared to be a race of really short, really small-brained hominids. They found parts of several skeletons and one reasonably-intact skull.

I won’t repeat the entire story and list of facts here, but I’ll summarize the theories:

1. The “hobbit” people were an isolated, late-surviving, dwarfed group of Homo erectus.
2. The skull studied was from a homo sapiens individual, with microcephaly.
3. They were just a very small group of homo sapiens, dwarfed perhaps by a combination of the island-dwarfing effect, chance genetic drift, and severe nutritional constraints.

Okay, well the main contending theories are the first two, but I am leaning toward No.3. The proponents of No.1 say how much the skull resembles Homo erectus, but I think it could still be normal variations of homo sapiens. There are modern Homo sapiens skulls that could probably pass for neanderthal, and with a small isolated population, homo erectus-like skull shapes might have developed. In addition, some of the existing peoples of the area are very short and have skulls at least somewhat approaching a Homo erectus shape. Locals tell of a former small race of hairy people that interbred with them just generations ago. Is it just legend, perhaps concocted just for the new international attention? Or could it be real?

I’m doubtful too, of the microcephaly theory (No.2). It might explain the skull, but what about the other small skeletons? And a microcephallic individual would have had reduced chance of survival in stone age conditions. Possible, just not terribly likely. But then every once in a while, the unlikely happens.

My second guess would be No.1 (if I had to take a second guess), that they were indeed a dwarfed version of Homo erectus. And they have not turned over every stone in the DNA analysis/comparison of modern humans. They might yet find some anamolies that point to groups that co-evolved, then interbred with modern humans, as has been suggested, by some, with neanderthals.

Only more evidence will complete the picture and reveal the likely reality of what the Flores Hobbit is. Unfortunately, that might be serveral years from now. Until then, we’ll just have to continue guessing.

Comments(0)