Homo Floresiensis, nicknamed the Hobbit, are an early human species that have been found in Flores, Indonesia. This early human species was only discovered in 2003 and are thought to have lived between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago. Upon discovery of Homo Floresiensis remains, it was discovered that they were short statured (about 3 feet), has small brains, large teeth, shrugged-shoulders, and large feet compared to short legs. Due to traits such as small stature and brain size, paleoanthropologists assigned the skeleton a new species, Homo Floresiensis. An interesting fact is that even though they had a small stature and small brain size, Homo floresiensis were able to make stone tools and use them to hunt animals as large as small elephants . One interesting thing to me is that although the Homo Floresiensis had small brain size they were able to make stone tools and even hunt small elephants. This is interesting because the only similar occurrence of this is in Chimpanzees, whereas most early human species had at least somewhat increased brain size, yet the Homo Floresiensis did not. Although some have dismissed the small stature of the skeletal remains as a deformity, others think they are descendants of a more ancient race known as the Homo erectus. The small stature of Homo Floresiensis might be due to island dwarfism, similar to what occurred to Pygmy elephants on the island of Flores that are now extinct after showing similar adaptations as the Homo Floresiensis. Island dwarfism occurs due to long-term isolation on an island with limited food resources and a lack of predators. A similar occurrence happened with the Homo erectus, shrinking due to an evolutionary response of the island’s limited resources. Another new piece of evidence found is that the Flores may be a direct descendant of the first apemen that first evolved some three million years ago. The physical similarities of Lucy, a 3.2 million year old member of Australopithecus afarensis, are quite similar to Homo Floresiensis and yet the Australopithecus afarensis species died out millions of years ago. In my opinion, the biggest contributor these findings have made to the study of human diversity is the fact that similar remains of a species that had been extinct for millions of years were discovered to have lived as early as 17,000 years ago. This shows that although we may think some trait is unique it can present itself again millions of years later. An interesting fact is that the Homo Floresiensis species abruptly died out 17,000 years ago even though they had seemed to live on the island with minimal problems prior to this. Some think that this may be due to geological location near volcanoes and a volcanic eruption 17,000 years ago that could have destroyed vegetation, thus starving the Flores. Another thought its that modern humans could have played a role in this, wiping the species out completely. I know humans have caused the extinction of some animal species in present day, but it is fascinating and horrible that they may have caused the extinction of the Homo Floresiensis as many as 17,000 years ago.
3 thoughts on “Blog 6 – Homo Floresiensis”
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Hi! Thank you for sharing! You and I both shared some of the same interests. I think it is so cool how similar the Homo Floresiensis and Lucy were. They were thousands of years apart but shared the same features except from a brain that could do more skills. This is a true look at how long of a process evolution is in order to get the perfect species developed. I mean Lucy and the Floresiensis both had a chimp sized brain but one was able to successfully develop stone tools used for hunting and the other was not. Then I think it is funny that Neanderthals came along with ginormous brains that did not fit the success of living either so then when we evolved it was perfectly in the middle. I think it is cool that paleoanthropologists are still trying to decode the genes of modern humans and figure out what parts of species stayed with us just how it was discovered that the FOXP2 gene was in Neanderthals and us which is a gee associated with speech. This is a gene that would have been a necessity back when hunting started in order to coordinate tasks. Keep up the good work!
I’m glad you wrote your blog about the Floresiensis with most of the other blogs being about Neanderthals. The dwarfism is definitely one of the most fascinating aspects of this species. The island dwarfism theory is the most interesting and likely theory in my opinion. Especially having the pygmy elephants as another example of this theory. Evolution is all about changing to survive, which is what the dwarfism would have been. The cause of the extinction of the species is a good one to consider as well. I find it hard to believe that this species died due to a lack of vegetation from a volcanic eruption. As you mentioned, they survived well with minimal problems prior to that so it would seem to me that they must have been a fairly adaptive species.
Madison,
I specifically like your evaluation of the extinction of Homo floresiensis. It is odd that the species–to our knowledge–kind of just fell off the face of the Earth within a short period of time, as this does not commonly happen, especially if a species comes in contact with little predators. Using the examples of reasoning from the article, “How a hobbit is rewriting the history of the human race” and your own outside knowledge is a good way to investigate this mystery. Also, I enjoyed your point about the characteristics of Australopithecus afarensis appearing again thousands of years after the species left the earth. Because these organisms were so primitive, it is very strange that underdeveloped traits would evolutionarily return, even if they were not the most useful.