In 2003, the remains of small hominids that lived there until about 18,000 years ago appeared in a cave in Flores, an Indonesian island. The Homo floresiensis , as they were called, barely exceeded one meter in height and weighed about 25 kilos , which is why they very soon became popularly known as ‘hobbits’ .
The discovery of the Flores men, who, until their extinction, coincided in time with Homo sapiens , has raised an important controversy among paleontologists. Some argue that they appear to be related to Homo erectus , a very robust species that disappeared about 70,000 years ago. In his opinion, Homo floresiensis would constitute a case of insular dwarfism , a phenomenon that has been observed in other species that live in small and isolated environments: over time, Homo erectus populations established in Flores would have seen their size reduced, a adaptation needed to cope with the limited resources available .
Other scientists, on the other hand, believe that the ‘hobbits’ are, in fact, modern humans suffering from different conditions . These indicate that their small stature and reduced cranial capacity –approximately a third of ours– suggest that they could have suffered from some form of cretinism –a deficiency that affects physical and mental development– or microcephaly.
Now, a team of researchers from the French Museum of Natural History and the University of Paris Descartes has presented a new study that seems to reject this last hypothesis. Their conclusions point, on the contrary, that Homo floresiensis were a species other than ours .
To determine this, they have carried out an analysis of the bone layers of the skull of the Liang Bua 1 specimen , the best preserved of the nine known, and have made a map of the variations in bone thickness. This has allowed them to know that in the ‘hobbits’ there is no trace of serious genetic conditions .
Of course, as indicated in the Journal of Human Evolution , their work does not allow us to know for sure if they were an independent species or a reduced version of Homo erectus .
