Post by Emperor AAdmin on Mar 5, 2005 4:47:23 GMT -5
Hobbit-Like Human Ancestor Found in Asia
Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News
A male Homo floresiensis returns from the hunt. Found on the island of Flores in Indonesia, these ancient humans grew no taller than a three-year-old modern-human child. Their small size led scientists to nickname the species "hobbits," after the tiny Lord of the Rings characters. The first such individual found was female. Since then at least seven individuals have been found, including males.
The archaeological find will be featured in a National Geographic Channel program to air in early 2005.
Illustration by Peter Schouten
Homo floresiensis alongside Homo sapiens. The new species of human's adult size was about that of a three-year-old modern-human child. The skull of H. floresienses was the size of a grapefruit.
Photograph courtesy Peter Brown/Nature
This grapefruit-size Homo floresiensis skull is apparently from a 30-year-old female who lived 18,000 years ago on Flores, an island in Indonesia. The small brain suggests that the new human species is not a pygmy Homo sapiens but rather a descendant of Homo erectus.
Photograph courtesy Peter Brown/Nature
Scientist Peter Brown photographs the skull of Homo floresiensis, a species of human that is new to science.
This encounter between a modern human and Homo floresiensis (the 18,000-year-old skull) may have had ancient precedents. Some researchers believe that, because the hobbit-like humans lived at the same time and in the same general region as modern humans for at least 20,000 years, the two species may well have met face-to-face. Local legends on Flores mention tiny people who live in caves.
Photograph courtesy Peter Brown/Nature
The Indonesian island Flores lies between Australia and Asia.
Scientists suggest that the new species of tiny humans may have descended from large-body Homo erectus humans who made it across the sea to colonize Flores. Once on Flores, the ancient humans could have "dwarfed," an evolutionary response that has been seen in other mammals in isolated environments with little food and no predators.
Map copyright ESRI/National Geographic Society
This chart depicts one view of the evolution and worldwide dispersal of the genus Homo. The new species, Homo floresiensis, is part of the Asian dispersals and is believed to be a long-term, isolated descendant of Javanese H. erectus, though it could be a recent divergence. The evolutionary history of Homo is becoming increasingly complex as new species are discovered.
Chart courtesy Marta Mirazón Lahr & Robert Foley/Nature
October 27, 2004
Scientists have found skeletons of a hobbit-like species of human that grew no larger than a three-year-old modern child. The tiny humans, who had skulls about the size of grapefruits, lived with pygmy elephants and Komodo dragons on a remote island in Indonesia 18,000 years ago.
Australian and Indonesian researchers discovered bones of the miniature humans in a cave on Flores, an island east of Bali and midway between Asia and Australia.
Scientists have determined that the first skeleton they found belongs to a species of human completely new to science. Named Homo floresiensis, after the island on which it was found, the tiny human has also been dubbed by dig workers as the "hobbit," after the tiny creatures from the Lord of the Rings books.
The original skeleton, a female, stood at just 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall, weighed about 25 kilograms (55 pounds), and was around 30 years old at the time of her death 18,000 years ago.
The skeleton was found in the same sediment deposits on Flores that have also been found to contain stone tools and the bones of dwarf elephants, giant rodents, and Komodo dragons, lizards that can grow to 10 feet (3 meters) and that still live today.
Homo floresienses has been described as one of the most spectacular discoveries in paleoanthropology in half a century—and the most extreme human ever discovered.
The species inhabited Flores as recently as 13,000 years ago, which means it would have lived at the same time as modern humans, scientists say.
"To find that as recently as perhaps 13,000 years ago, there was another upright, bipedal—although small-brained—creature walking the planet at the same time as modern humans is as exciting as it was unexpected," said Peter Brown, a paleoanthropologist at the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia.
Brown is a co-author of the study describing the findings, which appears in the October 28 issue of the science journal Nature. The National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration has sponsored research related to the discovery. The find will be covered in greater detail in a documentary airing early next year on the National Geographic Channel.
"It is totally unexpected," said Chris Stringer, director of the Human Origins program at the Natural History Museum in London. "To have early humans on the remote island of Flores is surprising enough. That some are only about a meter tall with a chimp-size brain is even more remarkable. That they were still there less than 20,000 years ago, and [that] modern humans must have met them, is astonishing."
Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News
A male Homo floresiensis returns from the hunt. Found on the island of Flores in Indonesia, these ancient humans grew no taller than a three-year-old modern-human child. Their small size led scientists to nickname the species "hobbits," after the tiny Lord of the Rings characters. The first such individual found was female. Since then at least seven individuals have been found, including males.
The archaeological find will be featured in a National Geographic Channel program to air in early 2005.
Illustration by Peter Schouten
Homo floresiensis alongside Homo sapiens. The new species of human's adult size was about that of a three-year-old modern-human child. The skull of H. floresienses was the size of a grapefruit.
Photograph courtesy Peter Brown/Nature
This grapefruit-size Homo floresiensis skull is apparently from a 30-year-old female who lived 18,000 years ago on Flores, an island in Indonesia. The small brain suggests that the new human species is not a pygmy Homo sapiens but rather a descendant of Homo erectus.
Photograph courtesy Peter Brown/Nature
Scientist Peter Brown photographs the skull of Homo floresiensis, a species of human that is new to science.
This encounter between a modern human and Homo floresiensis (the 18,000-year-old skull) may have had ancient precedents. Some researchers believe that, because the hobbit-like humans lived at the same time and in the same general region as modern humans for at least 20,000 years, the two species may well have met face-to-face. Local legends on Flores mention tiny people who live in caves.
Photograph courtesy Peter Brown/Nature
The Indonesian island Flores lies between Australia and Asia.
Scientists suggest that the new species of tiny humans may have descended from large-body Homo erectus humans who made it across the sea to colonize Flores. Once on Flores, the ancient humans could have "dwarfed," an evolutionary response that has been seen in other mammals in isolated environments with little food and no predators.
Map copyright ESRI/National Geographic Society
This chart depicts one view of the evolution and worldwide dispersal of the genus Homo. The new species, Homo floresiensis, is part of the Asian dispersals and is believed to be a long-term, isolated descendant of Javanese H. erectus, though it could be a recent divergence. The evolutionary history of Homo is becoming increasingly complex as new species are discovered.
Chart courtesy Marta Mirazón Lahr & Robert Foley/Nature
October 27, 2004
Scientists have found skeletons of a hobbit-like species of human that grew no larger than a three-year-old modern child. The tiny humans, who had skulls about the size of grapefruits, lived with pygmy elephants and Komodo dragons on a remote island in Indonesia 18,000 years ago.
Australian and Indonesian researchers discovered bones of the miniature humans in a cave on Flores, an island east of Bali and midway between Asia and Australia.
Scientists have determined that the first skeleton they found belongs to a species of human completely new to science. Named Homo floresiensis, after the island on which it was found, the tiny human has also been dubbed by dig workers as the "hobbit," after the tiny creatures from the Lord of the Rings books.
The original skeleton, a female, stood at just 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall, weighed about 25 kilograms (55 pounds), and was around 30 years old at the time of her death 18,000 years ago.
The skeleton was found in the same sediment deposits on Flores that have also been found to contain stone tools and the bones of dwarf elephants, giant rodents, and Komodo dragons, lizards that can grow to 10 feet (3 meters) and that still live today.
Homo floresienses has been described as one of the most spectacular discoveries in paleoanthropology in half a century—and the most extreme human ever discovered.
The species inhabited Flores as recently as 13,000 years ago, which means it would have lived at the same time as modern humans, scientists say.
"To find that as recently as perhaps 13,000 years ago, there was another upright, bipedal—although small-brained—creature walking the planet at the same time as modern humans is as exciting as it was unexpected," said Peter Brown, a paleoanthropologist at the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia.
Brown is a co-author of the study describing the findings, which appears in the October 28 issue of the science journal Nature. The National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration has sponsored research related to the discovery. The find will be covered in greater detail in a documentary airing early next year on the National Geographic Channel.
"It is totally unexpected," said Chris Stringer, director of the Human Origins program at the Natural History Museum in London. "To have early humans on the remote island of Flores is surprising enough. That some are only about a meter tall with a chimp-size brain is even more remarkable. That they were still there less than 20,000 years ago, and [that] modern humans must have met them, is astonishing."