I thought the Homo floresiensis was one of the most interesting things to read about during this entire class! It has been called a Hobbit species because of its short stature and its comparatively wide feet. The reason I thought that this was the most interesting thing to read about was because it has the potential to change the way we think about our evolution as humans and how we understand the great migration from Africa.

The H. Floresiensis was found on the small island of Flores and was a shock for the scientists involved. The article went on to explain that this creature only disappeared from the scene around 17,000 years ago, which means it may be way more relevant in terms of evolution. These little hobbit creatures didn’t wander over to this island and gradually shrink over time, as was originally thought, but were always this small! Although the article doesn’t say that we’re descended from them, it does say that the H. Floresiensis may have increasing relevance in the way that we understand our own evolution.

These creatures also had the ability to create primitive stone tools, suggesting their heightened intelligence, which puts them slightly above some primates and relatives of the time. Something else that could potentially point to their intelligence is just how they got onto the island of Flores in the first place. Primitive humans and primates were not sailors, as the article says. This is really intriguing for me, because it almost seems like this little hobbit creature got to the island on accident, but now they’re a great anthropological mystery! A theory floated is that there could have been connections to islands then that there are now, or that they got swept there accidentally. Personally, I think the first theory is probably the most likely.

Then, the H. Floresiensis disappears 17,000 years ago. They aren’t sure exactly what happened yet, and only a few theories have been floated. A common theory is that they were wiped out from volcano activity, which is as likely as anything else (it feels like a lot of things end with volcanic activity).

Something that strikes me as really fascinating is that scientists think that humans and these creatures must have had meetings with each other. I think it would be so cool to find evidence of trading or meetings between the two species.

This has the potential to completely change the way we look at evolution, in my opinion. There were these relatively intelligent creatures living on an island in Indonesia, who could build tools and had features remarkably similar to humans, but who had small stature and wide feet. We’ve only just discovered these creatures, and have a lot of dots to connect, but it just goes to show that we’re truly grasping in the dark (at least some of the time). I can’t wait to see what happens with this species and what we can learn about them and how our ancestors may have interacted with them.