Homo Floresiensis:
The Worlds Greatest Archaeological
Find
In 2003 a joint Archaeological
team lead by Mike Worwood
uncovered an amazing new
puzzle in the mystery of
human
evolution.
While
excavating a limestone cave in
Flores, Indonesia, researchers
found a skull one-third the size
of a modern human’s. This
newly
discovered species
became known as Homo
Floresiensis or the “Hobbit”.
This find is one of the most controversial
finds in the last century. These three-foot
tall hominids are not our ancestors but
indicate to us that our family tree is more
diverse than we once thought.
Homo floresiensis died out approximately 12,000 years ago.
It is thought this might be a result of a volcanic eruption
because a lot of the native fauna died out at the same time
and a layer of ash was found during the excavation of Liang
Bau cave. This makes Homo floresiensis the latest surviving
hominid species apart from our own Homo sapiens.
There are three different theories on how Homo floresiensis
evolved the way it did. One theory is that Homo floresiensis
was a dwarfed descendent of early Homo sapiens that drifted
to Flores on debris or rafts along with other primitive
animal species that became dwarfed on Flores. This is called
Island Dwarfism and thought to occur when species become
isolated on islands adapt to their limited food supply by
becoming smaller.
Another theory is that Homo floresiensis descended from an
earlier, even more primitive version of Homo erectus, which
is an early form of hominid. This theory was based on the
difference in brain sizes compared to body sizes between
Homo erectus, Homo sapiens, and Homo floresiensis
A third theory is that the specimen
LB1 suffered from a syndrome called
microcephaly, a condition in which
the brain fails to grow to normal size.
This theory was soon discarded after
the discovery of a number of other
skeletons, primitive foot and wrist
bones and also primitive tools.
Mike Worwood, an archaeologist from The University Of
New England led a team of Australian and Indonesian
archaeologists in an excavation of the Liang Bau limestone
cave
in
Flores,
Indonesia.
The
difficulties that may
have been encountered
during the excavation
were
the
tropical
environment, working in
a cave or Komodo
Dragons and other difficulties. During the excavation they
found numerous specimens including Homo floresiensis,
stone tools, artefacts and bones from various animals
including: dwarfed Stegodon, a species of pygmy elephant,
Komodo Dragons and a giant rat species. There is evidence
that Homo floresiensis was butchering the Stegodons because
there was cut marks on the Stegodon bones. Using carbon
dating the team determined the bones to be 38,000 to
18,000 years old and the tools to
be 90,000 to 13,000 years old. As
part of the investigation to see
where Homo floresiensis fitted in
the team used CT scans to
measure brain volumes and
compared them to modern
humans in order to work out
wether they were a dwarfed
Homo sapien or an entirely
different species. The scientists
are also hoping to analyse DNA
from the bones to see where Homo floresiensis fits in to the
human family tree.
The artefacts from the excavation of Liang Bau are now
located at the American Museum of Natural History the
artefacts that are there are the Homo floresiensis skeletons
including LB1, stone tools and animal bones found during
the excavation. The public are free to view these artefacts.
The discovery of the Hobbit has taught us much about the
evolution of mankind and for this reason it is the worlds
greatest archaeological find.
Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://australianmuseum.net.au/
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/were-hobbits-human-14768/
http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/homo-floresiensismaking-sense-of-the-small-91387735
http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-floresiensis
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/flores.html