Scientists have clarified the pedigree of prehistoric dwarfs from the island of Flores
Discovered by biologists in 2003 on the island of Flores, the remains of dwarf creatures, nicknamed by the press "hobbits", turned out to be representatives of a separate species previously unknown to science. The version that the "hobbits" were a human genetic anomaly has been refuted.
According to the findings of a group of researchers led by Professor William Jungers from the United States, the structure of the feet of the "hobbit" suggests that the undersized creatures evolved not from Homo erectus (Homo erectus, who lived one and a half million years ago, the ancestor of modern people), but from an older species. Too long bones, a very small thumb, the curved shape of the rest of the fingers - in all these features, "hobbits" are close to modern chimpanzees.
The researchers were able to refute the hypothesis that the "hobbits", which received the Latin name Homo floresiensis (after the name of the island of Flores, where the first find was made), arose as a result of a mutation of prehistoric people. Despite the fact that human populations with very short stature are well known (the growth of African pygmies does not exceed one and a half meters), Homo floresiensis has too small a brain - three times smaller than the brain of a modern person. Theoretically, on a small island, the ancestors of the "hobbits" could become a victim of a genetic abnormality, due to which not only growth, but also the volume of the brain decreased, but this does not explain the change in the structure of the feet described by scientists.
True, the location of the "hobbits" on the island could still affect the reduction of the brain, although not due to genetic abnormalities. This conclusion was reached by another group of scientists, who published their article in the same issue of the journal Nature with the team of William Jungers. British paleontologists Eleanor Weston and Endrian Lister studied the evolution of a species that, at first glance, had nothing to do with the "hobbits"; scientists compared hippos on the island of Madagascar and on the African continent. They were able to show that the brain volume of animals living on the island was significantly reduced and such a reduction, according to biologists, can be universal for all species.
