Scientists reveal new facts about Hobbit Man from Flores

Jakarta –

Homo floresiensisa species of ancient people nicknamed Hobbits because of their short stature is being re-examined. According to the latest research, this creature is smaller than previously thought.

This species, which is related to modern humans, was first discovered in 2003 in Liang Bua Cave on Flores Island, which became the source of its name. Archaeologists estimate that these brainless people lived on the island around 50,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens had long inhabited southern Australia. .

Early fossils show that individuals of this species grew to about 1 meter tall with small brains and large teeth for their small body size. However, many mysteries remain due to the lack of fossils.

Well, scientists have found three more fossils at Mata Meng, dating back 700,000 years. They estimate from these bones that the height of the body of an adult Homo floresiensis was only about 100 cm, about 6 cm shorter than the height of the Hobbit skeleton from Liang Bua.

“This 700,000-year-old adult upper arm bone is not only shorter than the Homo floresiensis upper arm bone, but is also the smallest known upper arm bone from the hominin fossil record worldwide,” said Adam Brumm, a researcher at Griffith University, Australia.

“This extremely rare specimen confirms our hypothesis that the ancestors of Homo floresiensis did not have very small body sizes. However, it is now clear from the proportions of these small bones that the early ancestors of ‘Hubbits’ were even less than we thought before,” he said.

Further analysis showed that the Mata Menge fossils were likely “direct ancestors” and “older variants” of Homo floresiensis, but with less distinctive teeth than their descendants.

The tiny arm bones examined in the new study indicate that a significant reduction in body size occurred early in the history of the “Hobbit” Flores.

“This new fossil strongly suggests that the ‘Hobbit’ story actually began when a group of early Asian hominins known as Homo erectus somehow became isolated on this remote Indonesian island, and perhaps a million years ago, and suffered a significant reduction in body size over time. time,” said Dr. Brum.

(fyk/fyk)