This week we learned about the evolution of hominids and how we reached our modern forms. I found it really interesting to read about Homo floresiensis, also called hobbits, and the way that their discovery changed the field of anthropology.
During some point along the timeline, Homo floresiensis was cut off from the rest of evolutionary history, ending up on secluded and hard to reach Flores. Flores was apparently home to other species which had ceased to exist elsewhere in the world much longer ago. Because of the fact that Flores was so secluded and they didn’t have the same environmental and social threats as elsewhere in the world, Homo floresiensis was able to thrive for a much longer time than its relatives in other regions.
The discovery of Homo floresiensis complicated the evolutionary timeline because it posed the question of how they ended up on Flores in the first place. They were speculated to have been too primitive to have reached the island by building rafts, so there’s speculation that they could have ended up there from behind washed there by a tsunami and/or reaching it easily by temporary land bridges.
Their history ends abruptly though, and there’s speculation about multiple factors which could have contributed to the quick demise of Homo floresiensis. The first theory has to do with the fact that around the same time that their history suddenly stops, there was a volcanic eruption which could have wiped them out. The second theory, and one that a lot of anthropologists seem to have backed up, is that more evolved hominids arrived on the island and competed with them over resources, and there simply wasn’t enough to sustain Homo floresiensis.
Reading about Homo floresiensis was super interesting to me as I had never heard of it prior to this class, and the discovery of them was super crucial in the study of anthropology because they changed the whole map of evolutionary history, making anthropologists have to look at evolution from a different standpoint.
Hi Theo! In my blog, I wrote about Neanderthals, and your blog post about Homo florsiensis grabbed my attention! I also haven’t heard of this group of beings, so I figured it would be difficult to summarize them, also given that there’s not too much information on them; however, they are a fascinating group! Findings of this group definitely changed the study of anthropology through its map of evolutionary history, which is amazing because it challenged scientists to look at this topic from a different perspective, causing us to find out much more than we thought possible! Your post was great to follow along with and grasped a great amount of information that was easy to retain. The existence of this particular group sure did seem to end abruptly, so I wonder what other kinds of evidence scientists have gathered in order to back up their theory that this group gradually died out from lack of resources.
Hey Theo!
I wrote about Homo floresiensis in my post, too, but I was still really drawn to what you had to say. There was a point you brought up that I didn’t really think to mention that was really interesting, that not only were the hobbits isolated environmentally but also socially, which played a large role in their line of evolution. I wonder what it would have been like when other Homo groups made contact with them and if that is what truly led to their demise, you know? And if so, how did they burn through all of their resources in such a short amount of time? How many were there? I really liked your post, it made me think about the hobbits in a much deeper way.