ANCIENT, TINY HUMANS BAFFLE SCIENTISTS
ANCIENT, TINY HUMANS BAFFLE SCIENTISTS: The remains of a member of the smallest ancient human species on record, who stood at just 1m tall, have been discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores.
The fossil arm bone belonged to a tiny adult human who roamed the island 700 000 years ago alongside pygmy elephants, Komodo dragons and giant rats the size of rabbits.
First unearthed in a startling discovery nearly 21 years ago, Homo floresiensis, the scientific name for the extinct species, challenged the idea that human evolution unfolded in a neat line from primitive to complex.
Experts don’t know why Homo floresiensis – nicknamed the 'hobbit' after J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional characters – evolved such a tiny body yet lived relatively recently, how it crossed the deep ocean to reach the island of Flores, exactly where to place this diminutive oddball on the human family tree, or why it disappeared.
The latest discovery suggests that the species underwent an early and dramatic reduction in body size in response to the unique evolutionary pressures of being marooned on an island.
Island dwarfism is thought to emerge because a smaller body size can be advantageous in surviving periodic food shortages on islands – and being big is less of a bonus with no large carnivorous mammals to contend with.
PHOTO: Yousuke Kaifu / AP
The fossil arm bone belonged to a tiny adult human who roamed the island 700 000 years ago alongside pygmy elephants, Komodo dragons and giant rats the size of rabbits.
First unearthed in a startling discovery nearly 21 years ago, Homo floresiensis, the scientific name for the extinct species, challenged the idea that human evolution unfolded in a neat line from primitive to complex.
Experts don’t know why Homo floresiensis – nicknamed the 'hobbit' after J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional characters – evolved such a tiny body yet lived relatively recently, how it crossed the deep ocean to reach the island of Flores, exactly where to place this diminutive oddball on the human family tree, or why it disappeared.
The latest discovery suggests that the species underwent an early and dramatic reduction in body size in response to the unique evolutionary pressures of being marooned on an island.
Island dwarfism is thought to emerge because a smaller body size can be advantageous in surviving periodic food shortages on islands – and being big is less of a bonus with no large carnivorous mammals to contend with.
PHOTO: Yousuke Kaifu / AP
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