Archaeologists have discovered that tiny, now extinct humans known as “Hobbits” were scavengers who dined on pygmy elephants after they were best cut down by Komodo dragons. This discovery overturns that notion homo floresiensisA human species that arrived on the Indonesian island of Flores at least 700,000 years ago hunted large game.
First discovered in 2003, H. floresiensis It is nicknamed the Hobbit because of its size is smallIt averaged about 3 feet, 6 inches (106 centimeters) long, with its small brain, large teeth, and large feet. but archaeologist also found Stone tools, animal bones with cut marks, and burnt bones seem to add to the sophisticated behavior common in our lineage, Homosexual. Hobbits disappeared about 50,000 years ago homo sapiens Began to spread in Southeast Asia.
But a study published Friday (July 3) in the journal science advancementAn international team of researchers questions whether behavior H. floresiensis was actually as advanced as first estimated.
Researchers looked at fossilized bones Stegodon florensis insularisAn extinct dwarf species of elephant has been discovered in Liang Bua Cave, where the bones were obtained H. floresiensis And stone tools have also been found, so that it can be ascertained whether the cut marks are of hunting or not. Stegodon From cleaning up the remains of meat or feasts of the only other carnivore on the island: Komodo dragons (varanus comodensis).
To distinguish hobbit cut marks from Komodo dragon tooth marks, researchers first conducted an experiment in which a captive Komodo dragon at Zoo Atlanta was fed a goat carcass. Then, they recovered the goat skeleton and painstakingly documented all the Komodo dragon teeth marks, pits, notches and grooves made in the bones. The researchers wrote in the study that the tooth marks were concentrated in areas where there was ample amount of goat meat, suggesting that the Komodo dragon had a preference for areas with meat.
An extinct species of dwarf elephant is called Stegodon florensis insularis Inhabited the Indonesian island of Flores.
(Image credit: Alamy)
After this the researchers examined the ancient Stegodon Bones for evidence of cut marks H. floresiensis‘Stone tools and teeth marks of Komodo dragons. They found 54 cut marks Stegodon Bones and nearly twice as many Komodo dragon tooth marks. More importantly, they found that Komodo dragon marks were concentrated in areas with meat, while human cut marks were primarily made in areas without much meat, which suggests H. floresiensis did not hunt and kill Stegodon.
The overall pattern of cut marks and tooth marks suggests that “mostly a combination of primary penetration and secondary penetration by Komodo dragons” H. floresiensis where both hunters ate Stegodon,” the researchers wrote. And according to researchers, Hobbits probably ate this meat raw, as they did not find any evidence on it. Stegodon The bones that they were cooked with. Nor did they find any evidence of burning of the more than 4,000 rat bones from the site, suggesting that the previous evidence of burning was actually natural manganese staining.
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The researchers said the lack of hunting and fire-making techniques suggests the Hobbits were not as behaviorally sophisticated as previously thought and raises questions about their ancestry.
Komodo dragon (varanus komodoensis) lived on the island of Flores and was the only other carnivore with homo floresiensis.
(Image credit: Alamy)
It is possible that the ancestor of H. floresiensis branched from Homosexual Genus before humans gained control over fire and hunting, study by first author E. Grace Veatcha paleontologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany told Live Science in an email.
One hypothesis for the origin of the Hobbits is island dwarfismWhich occurs when the average body size of a large species becomes smaller over generations due to limited availability of natural resources. Another theory is that Hobbits came from earlier Homosexual The species that was already small bodied.
“I think our study highlights the importance of considering behavior in these debates,” Veatch said. “Our study suggests that H. floresiensis Evolved from a hominin population that did not need these dietary strategies [of hunting and cooking]such as a form of initial Homosexual“
But the new study does not fully settle the debate about the ancestry of the Hobbits, because little is known about the behavior of early hominins in Southeast Asia, such as homo erectus On Java and other areas Sunda or Sundalanda land mass between the south China Seas and the Indian Ocean that have been exposed repeatedly over the past 2.6 million years.
If H. floresiensis branch actually closed H. erectusThis shows that many evolutionary changes have occurred.
“This development is taking place on an island that is cut off from the Sunda mainland homo erectus To homo floresiensis “This may involve not only profound physical changes, such as reduced body size and brain volume, but also behavioral adaptations.” adam bruman archaeologist at Griffith University in Australia, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email.
“Flores was clearly a wild card in the story of early human evolution, a place where almost anything could have happened – including, potentially, the loss of deeply rooted hominin behaviors like hunting and the use of fire,” Brumm said.
Where? H. floresiensis fits in with the rest Homosexual The genus is still an open question, Veatch said. “Importantly, this study highlights the contribution of taphonomy [the study of what happens to organic remains after death] To talk about these big questions about lineage.”
Weech, EG, Almasyah, N., Pente, M., Pelissero, A., Negash, T., Pobiner, B., Bates, CR, Jatmiko, Sutikna, T., Tocheri, MW (2026). Taphonomic analysis of Liang Bua reveals behavioral and technological capabilities homo floresiensis. science advancement 12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeb7219
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