Discovery provides new clues on 'Hobbit'

The discovery of fossilised remains by an Australian-led team in Indonesia has unlocked new questions about human evolution and the history of the tiny human, known as the `Hobbit'.

The findings of
the lower right jaw fragment and six teeth from Mata Menge, published in the journal Nature on Thursday, is the latest in a string of significant discoveries Dr van den Bergh has made on Flores in eastern Indonesia over the past 20 years. In 1992 artefacts and fossils dating back more than 700,000 years were discovered at Mata Menge. "Most archaeologists thought it was impossible that more than 700,000 years ago humans were present on an oceanic island like Flores which had never been connected with the Asian mainland." Then in 2003 at Liang Bua cave in Flores they found the female remains of a 60,000 to 100,000-year-old skeleton of Homo floresiensis or the `Hobbit' - a tiny human standing at just one metre tall. Dr van den Bergh said the new fossils uncovered in 2014 date back even further than the `Hobbit' to around 700,000 years - making it a potential ancestor to the little human. Not only does he believe the discovery will silence those critics who argue the `Hobbit' was nothing more than a deformed modern human, but also has important implications for our understanding of early human dispersal and evolution.

Hobbit

a reply to: tommo39
Your link is broken. Try this one... Hobbit

Cool story. Looks like that settles that. Not just deformed humans after all.

a reply to: tommo39

Any DNA study possible?

a reply to: BO XIAN

I don't know for sure, but i'm sure Dr.van den Burgh would be looking into that aspect of the dig....

I suppose the stories were told for hundreds of generations before they were written down. So it may not be a myth. Now these people could have lived on longer on other islands around the world. Maybe even in Ireland or England. I am sure they died off a couple of thousand years ago, people probably hunted the leprechauns down because they feared them. No different than killing off the preditors that people were scared of. People will kill a spider when they see it even if it does them no harm. It seems to be human instinct to kill things we fear. The wife makes me kill a lot of harmless insects.

originally posted by: tommo39
a reply to: BO XIAN

I don't know for sure, but i'm sure Dr.van den Burgh would be looking into that aspect of the dig....

Please give me a PM if you find anything out about that.

a reply to: BO XIAN

Will do...cheers

a reply to: tommo39

Most surprising was that the recently exhumed specimens were no larger than those still living on the island more than 600,000 years later.
"I was stunned when I first saw these new fossils," said co-author Yousuke Kaifu, a scientist at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

Read more at: phys.org...

Being so successful for so long I would not be surprised if they eventually find some written language.
Maybe they were the first to write of giants

a reply to: tommo39

So it is a miniature Homo Erectus os some brand of Australopithecine.
If they got this far did they get to Australia?
Did Homo Sapiens encounter them?
just a few thoughts.