Eshan Maitra
All The Lord of the Rings fan out there, now you have every right to get excited about the news. Back in 2003, when the first skeletons of tiny-men, Homo floresiensis was discovered and nicknamed ‘Hobbit’. Many argued these probably happened as result of some sort of epidemic. But newly found remains of their near cousins just disproven all the doubts. The remains of one adult and two children were discovered at a burial site. Under an ancient riverbed site known as Mata Menge, on the Indonesian island of Flores. Lead researcher Gert van den Bergh, from the University of Wollongong in Australia claims that, “This find has important implications for our understanding of early human dispersal and evolution in the region and quashes once and for all any doubters that believe Homo floresiensis was merely a sick modern human (Homo sapiens). Remarkably, these fossils, which include two milk teeth from children, are at least 700,000 years old.”
Though these are 600,000 years old ancestors from Homo floresiensis. Comparing the fossils against modern and extinct hominins researcher Yousuke Kaifu, of Tokyo’s National Museum of Nature and Science, suggests, “All the fossils are indisputably hominin and they appear to be remarkably similar to those of Homo floresiensis. The morphology of the fossil teeth also suggests that this human lineage represents a dwarfed descendant of early Homo erectus that somehow got marooned on the island of Flores.
What is truly unexpected is that the size of the finds indicates that Homo floresiensis had already obtained its small size by at least 700,000 years ago.” Discovered 1 million years old tool by the remains strengthens the theory. The team believes, these Hobbits evolved to small stature to suit the island environment.
These cute little-guys’ pictures of reconstructed figure by Atelier Elisabeth Daynes is published along with the study in the journal ‘Nature’.