Contentious debate is an understatement. The team that found Floreiensis was attacked and trashed horribly by teams of regional scientists who made fools of themselves but that common knee jerk reaction isn't talked about and this sort of attack happens a lot. Scientist preserving their theories and egos is a real problem.
Recent papers suggest that Homo floresiensis is derived from an archaic member of the genus Homo e.g H. habilis. This would more parsimoniously explain the existence of two very small hominins in S. E. Asia - floresiensis and luzonensis i.e. that H. erectus did not undergo two 'island dwarfing' events, but that the two tiny species were in fact derived from a tiny ancestral species i.e. H. habilis.
Yes, Habillis makes more sense than Erectus. It would also explain why no interbreeding occurred. While some of the later more advanced sub species of Erectus might have been able to mate with Sapiens, Habillis, or in this case a smaller offshoot would have been too far removed Genetically (most likely).
Yeah it's entirely possible that an earlier migration followed the south Asian coast and is currently underwater. If they never ventured north their remains wouldn't be accessible today. This could be because they depended on the Ocean for survival.
A very good talk with the utterly charming Karen Baab. I read somewhere that H Floresiensis had the same unusual anatomy of a wrist bone (Scaphoid?) as A Afarensis. Thus the suggestion was that H Fl was a very late surviving australopithecine
On the topic of tales of little forest people: I doubt that they survived until written historical times, but I do wonder, since our species alone is about 300.000 (!!!) years old, is it possible that there are some HIGHLY distorted elements, ideas in stories that actually have kernels of truth brought with us from tens of thousands of years ago? Could any “monsters” and magical creatures common in old folklore actually originate from paleolitic times? Are there any tropes or archetypes that originated as stories about Neanderthals or erectus?
Yes. The island had giant storks and lizards. I'm sure they had stories about dragons. Could a stork have dropped a human baby that it was carrying off to eat? And contact with other humans would've led to stories of giants.
Marvelous questions! Indeed, just read an article that ice age era symbols in cave art have been deciphered as transmitting calendrical data. Our ancestors must have passed down to us incredible knowledge in our myths, legends, and religions. There's a great video about the oldest myth in the world here on RUclips. Some of the information we are receiving has been so attenuated by the expanse of time as to be like unto mere whispers in our dreams. Somebody on a linguistics channel once asked if it's possible that we might have some relic of a neanderthal linguistic feature in one of our known languages. Definitely another intriguing question.
The discovery of Homo Floresiensis brings to mind the legend of the Menehune people of the Hawaiian islands. This could be an instance of island dwarfism, no?
How perfect was the timing of this discovery right when the Lord of the Rings movies were at their peak. I immediately started reading Scientific American and I’ve been semi obsessed with ancient humans ever since.
So you are discounting the locals talking about them, their stories of interacting with them? If I recall, according to the stories passed down around 4-5 generations interactions between the tribes (counts of baby stealing etc.. etc..). Personally I don't dismiss the stories, yet others do.
@@EarnestWilliamsGeofferic danke, this was a while back yet there was no mention of the stories from the local tribes ... there were talks of them being around as recent as a 1.000 years ago my friend ... пока пока)
I came across your work thanks to the youtube channel E. D. G. E. great work and thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us all. Subscribed and *Ding* all notifications.
@@EvolutionSoup The big question about Homo Floresiensis is were they small & pea-brained because of inbreeding ??? Consider the Koala of Australia, which is so dumb that it will starve to death if you try to feed it Eucalipis leaves off the branch, and it will cling to your leg thinking you are a tree. The Koala's brain-to-body ratio is the lowest of any mammal and half of the space in its head for a brain is filled with fluid. Also, the Koala brain is smooth like a mouse brain, but in all fairness, a mouse is actually smarter. Or in short, the Koala is a creature that is going extinct due to being too stupid to adapt to changing conditions... So is Homo Floresiensis really the result of island inbreeding, resulting in a hominid that is a rather deformed version of its ancestors ???
17:40 The large hobbit eating monitor on Flores was called Megalania. 23:30 Third possibility, we ate them. (I don't think our genomes would be similar enough for us to interbreed)
I know it might sound stupid, but. Could Floresiensis be the result of convergent evolution? That is, a hominid-like creature that's not related to hominids, I mean, an ape common ancestor that branched off before hominid evolve, having to face similar evolutive pressures as hominids, so it evolves a similar body plan, not as much of a brain though. It would explain te lack of floresiensis DNA in modern humans and the weird mixture of modern and arcaic features
The bone structure would be more different, and those differences would be very obvious to scientists. Convergent evolution on this time scale, while in the realm of the possible, is very, very, VERY unlikely.
@@johnlittle8975 I was thinking of that very thing, however, this is different in that going crab, gives an advantage regardless of what the crab-like evolved from. A hominid-like body plan does not give much of an advantage unless it comes paired to a big brain to get the most of those free hands. Also a big social brain is of importance, since you're basically worthless by your clawleed-fangless self
One piece of 'evidence' pointing in the direction of violence is that there are legends and myths of modern humans hunting out and eradicating the 'hobbits' of Flores because they had a tendency of stealing their babies for purposes unknown.
On the lack of unexplained DNA in modern Indonesians, I feel it's worth mentioning that Denisovan DNA, while found in modern humans alive today, is not found in the modern inhabitants of the Altai Mountains. I'm just saying that it might be wise to look for unexplained DNA a little broader afield than just the island of Flores. Personally, I still favor the interbreeding theory because it's consistent with how homo sapiens have traditionally interacted with other human species. In any case, I'm glad Dr. Baab mentioned all the major theories about how Homo floresiensis went extinct. It seems like most videos focused on them only mention the Genocide Theory. This is an interesting video, and
It might be that shrinking a Home Erectus causes an 'uneven shrinking'. Or it may be that longer arms were better for throwing spears, so there was selection advantage for 'long arms' (i.e. sort of staying the same length) at the same time that that were advantages to having a smaller body.
People wonder why if their were aliens, why not contact us? Because watching a civilization grow would be the most interesting, entertaining thing to watch in all the universe. Up until recently, we were all separate tribes of totally different people. So many wars, so many cultures. Catching a random war with tiny big headed men and cranes would be just one of the many insane things you'd see if you got to watch our civilization grow. Seeing rome grow from 1 village to an empire... your mind would explode.
Check out the PBS ducumentary "Lost Tribe of Palau". There is a lot of evidence that miniature humans populated a lot of the Pacific. There is living memory of them on Hawaii and here in the Philippines.
Hello Dr. Baab, this was so very interesting to watch today. My question for you is.. Is there a possibility that this species of humans are still alive and well there? I've been told this several times from people who have lived there all their lives. I'd love to know your thoughts when time permits. Much Thanks!!
And... The reason there is no mystery DNA in modern day Indonesians is probably due to the fact that our genomes were just too different. We naturally probably would not see them as partners.
They have not been able to get DNA From H.Floresiensis in part because the hot and humid climate is not good for preserving DNA. She said in the video that they did look at the DNA of locals who have lived on the island many generations and there is no indication that any such breeding occurred. I believe that Floresiensis would have been far too different from H Sapiens for breeding to have occurred, although of course I can;t say for sure, but it seems really unlikely to me, these things are way too primitive.
Stone tool tech can tell you a lot about timeline too. I have been following since this discovery. I believe H. Floresiensis is a late H. Erectus affected by island dwarfism.
Very interesting. You skipped mentioning the Ayta Magbukon people of the Philippines who have about 5% Denisovan DNA, the most known of any modern human group.
I haven't scrolled through all of the comments below, so apologies if this is a repeated question: I understand that the body proportions and particularly the brain size probably eliminates this possibility, but is it possible that floresiensis was simply a pygmy people of another contemporaneous species, as Negritos in Philippines and Baka of the Congo basin are to us?
Andaman and Nicobar islands are inhabited by people with short stature. People in Indonesia report people with short stature, so does people from Philippines, yet these people somehow are usually not mentioned.
Would be interesting to see a comparison between H. Floresiensis , luisentis and H. Naledi . Both seem on thr surface to be niche evolved "steps back" from Erectus , or closer to H. Habilus to this lay person. Given we give credence to convergent evolution with other animal species , it seems egotistical not to condider these outliers as an example of this with hominids .
I usually think of the prospect of a human Lazarus taxon like this: what are the chances that the only evidence would be hundreds of thousands of years old if they still exist?
Varanus komodoensis evolved into its large size on continental Australia, along with its extinct close relative Varanus prisca. V. komodoensis dispersed into Indonesia before undergoing a range contraction during the late Pleistocene and Holocene to its current distribution. Its not a true case of island gigantism.
I'm from Indonesia, and about 5 years ago in Aceh (in Sumatera / Western part of Indonesia), there is a sighting of small human living in the jungle called suku Mante (means the Mante tribe). This is the youtube linkruclips.net/video/JegW8k93qTM/видео.html (sorry the video are in Bahasa), are these suku Mante and Homo Floriensis related ? Thank you
Primitive? Primitive? Primitive again? Is primitive the word we use, to discriminate the human species that went extinct? It is so diminuitive, like Neanderthals were disabled and didn't make it. And we ourselves are all Super Man. Why would you use the word primitive anymore? I think it is unfair to non-western people, just because we do not understand their culture from face to face. Why call other routes of human development primitive? We can't even talk to them, so, how can we judge them? When I'd call you primitive, we might end in court and I must pay. When we call millions of extinct people primitive, nobody raises his hand in protest. How come?! Yeah, interesting, interesting they all comment. And the next ten years nothing will happen.
Remember for 200 years before the discovery of the remains. Locals and Europeans talked about sightings of little people. Back in the 1980s people laughed at us cryptozoology followers. Not laughing so much now......
I know the video says only 1 other island has been found to be perhaps another dwarf species. My question is...are there more islands out there next to Flores that hasn't been explored as much? Perhaps there will be some hidden cave with more bones out there? I'm sure that not all the islands have been explored by modern humans either.....also would there be any signs of modern humans cannibalizing the homo floresiensis?
Do you think that the home florets is could be the homo neladi, but since this they have found dwarf homo erectus. Different site on the same island. Homo florensis looks like they made it to Java.
Many thanks. Very interesting. Very diplomatic management of differences between Australian and Indonesian scientists. Would have been good to focus less on cutesy ‘hobbit’ feet and more on hands. A key discriminator between H and Au is hand structure.
It's weird how people who've never had in any way interacted with each other came up with this creatures on their own. If it were lies, their description should have varied. People in here still believe there are hobbits in the wild and they are referred more to as ghost than living creatures.
Good question. Somebody else here mentioned, that older species of humans are below sea level, now. Oceans levels have been a lot lower, in Europe you could WALK from the European continent to Great-Britain, in a week or so. I bet in the Indonesia region, the map has once been different than today. And that is related to the climate. You can search more info online, yourself. Maybe climate change is a political thing now, nobody will deny ice ages, or desserts forming. Sometimes religious people will refer to the Bible, in discussions about human history, it happens, and you'd better praise their faith, discussion is useless. However, the Sahara history is a surprise, there were animal bones found, suggesting there has been rainforest with elephants and gazelles there. And the sea broke through the dunes, later. In northern Africa, they even found whale fossils. Just watch it now, it is lots of sand dunes. Maybe Indonesia has been cold and moderate, ages ago. Who knows? Watch out, when people think they know it all, they might easily overlook questions like the one you asked. Climate has a huge effect, of course.
Why not come right out and state that the local paleontologists were going out of their way to keep the Hobbits from being identified as a separate species, and the visiting paleontologists said they were.
Why wouldn't their brains get smaller if the island dwarfism was caused by a lack of resources? Larger brains needs a lot of energy. Nothing says evolution can't make a species dumber if that is beneficial for the individuals survival.
Dr Darrwon three tape should animal planet 2015 last see in 1977 it means it may be still there? Why UN, UNO Who and international countries make a energetic team to find with better equipment and security madam I need a chance I want explore I am like Herison Ford. I want to reveal the truth will any body team of people internationally will help I am from South Asia India.
Yes. Towards the end of the video she says that the last evidence of the types of tools they seem to have used was 50,000 years ago. Primitive Oldowan styled tools I think.
@@BaltimoresBerzerker Yes I get that and maybe erectus could do it though it speaks volumes for their tech ability, but here they're talking about homo habilis or even earlier species. Could they really have figured out how to do that? I mean Flores is far enough but Philippines is a real stretch.
@@abstractacus1598 Judging from their remains being there, they must have. The sea level was much lower then, so it would have been a much shorter voyage than it is today. But it's still immense! Many archeologists doubt if anatomically modern humans were seafaring in the paleolithic but there's no reason to think we didn't. Our relatives in other hominid groups must have been curious and inventive in their own ways.
@@BaltimoresBerzerker Indeed, but there's no evidence for seafaring on the scale of getting to the Philippines at that time. I can easily ascribe fully modern humans doing that but more primitive forms? With brains hardly bigger than modern apes? Doesn't seem possible.
@@abstractacus1598 How else would they get there? The neanderthal had a larger brain than modern humans, and we're just now starting to acknowledge their potential for art and abstract thought. But even with their larger brains, they went extinct so brain wiring maybe more important than size. As we speak the average human brain size has been shrinking with every passing generation (not well known but a fact). So I don't see brain size being a prerequisite for being a seafaring people group. It's been a pleasure bouncing ideas back and forward by the way my dude! Have a great day!
As someone who identifies as an ancient hominin I'd like to point out that the term " hobbit" is derogatory and their preferred pronoun is " halfling". Just don't call them p3cks!
What's wrong with another satisfied that like you take good care of your friends have to consider the three years old Kakashi acting like you Mobile plan
I admire her work and appreciate this channel but the interpretation of this group of fossil specimens is far fetched. It just has too many unknowns and weak inferences. The fossil record of "hominins" as they are called poses more questions than answers. Let's keep learning.
Look up the PBS documentary "Lost Tribe of Palau". There is actually a huge amount of evidence for these miniature humans being widespread throughout the Pacific.
Pinoy have a lot of mythical creatures, Capri, aswang, dwende ect ect that some still believe are real but there's zero evidence for any of it.. if you can show a hobbit then science will take notice but if all you have is hearsay then you have nothing
Not enough iodine on an island in the middle of the ocean?! What was the brain size of the person who came up with this one? Iodine deficiency is only a problem in the middle of continents thousands of miles from the ocean, or if you only eat food from far away that is deficient. The hobbits had to eat locally.
You have iodine deficiencies all over the globe, including on islands and in coastal communities. The area they were found in would have been inland, depending on when they actually lived. Having been inland, the soil could also be iodine deficient itself, meaning that any food not coming from the sea (as well as their fresh water) would have low amounts of iodine. Iodine deficiency is still a problem in parts of German and Norway, eg, even to this day. It's not as simple as 'eat some fish'.
Hi ghost of Homo genus feature from 2024 . There is no DNA to this day, but thay did some work with the proteins ( palaeoproteomics ) and long story short H. floresiensis came from H. habilis and lived on the island from 700000 years ago.
Contentious debate is an understatement. The team that found Floreiensis was attacked and trashed horribly by teams of regional scientists who made fools of themselves but that common knee jerk reaction isn't talked about and this sort of attack happens a lot. Scientist preserving their theories and egos is a real problem.
Yes. Look at all the animous surrounding Homo Naledi.
Karen is one of the best guests. She communicates so clearly.
Recent papers suggest that Homo floresiensis is derived from an archaic member of the genus Homo e.g H. habilis. This would more parsimoniously explain the existence of two very small hominins in S. E. Asia - floresiensis and luzonensis i.e. that H. erectus did not undergo two 'island dwarfing' events, but that the two tiny species were in fact derived from a tiny ancestral species i.e. H. habilis.
Yes, Habillis makes more sense than Erectus. It would also explain why no interbreeding occurred. While some of the later more advanced sub species of Erectus might have been able to mate with Sapiens, Habillis, or in this case a smaller offshoot would have been too far removed Genetically (most likely).
What an odd use of parsimonious.
most of the early human range in that part of the world is under the sea.
Yeah it's entirely possible that an earlier migration followed the south Asian coast and is currently underwater. If they never ventured north their remains wouldn't be accessible today. This could be because they depended on the Ocean for survival.
humans have always preferred the coasts. it is a great food source. first place to wash away evidence though.
I hope we can develop more ways to look under water that will lead to more amazing discoveries like this
Not at 10k yag. The Indonesian island chain at that point was indeed a chain of islands. Doggerland, eg, did not exist.
@@EarnestWilliamsGeoffericsea levels were 120+ meters lower 15-20k yag, and varied between 50-80 meters lower till 80k yag.
A very good talk with the utterly charming Karen Baab. I read somewhere that H Floresiensis had the same unusual anatomy of a wrist bone (Scaphoid?) as A Afarensis. Thus the suggestion was that H Fl was a very late surviving australopithecine
Funny that as people keep reporting an australopithecine type creature running around the same geographical area as the hobbit on sumatra
It may be possible that the locals had found some remains long before the researchers and that's the reason the legends originated.
🧞#Manusiawi
Or the legends were real
On the topic of tales of little forest people:
I doubt that they survived until written historical times, but I do wonder, since our species alone is about 300.000 (!!!) years old, is it possible that there are some HIGHLY distorted elements, ideas in stories that actually have kernels of truth brought with us from tens of thousands of years ago? Could any “monsters” and magical creatures common in old folklore actually originate from paleolitic times? Are there any tropes or archetypes that originated as stories about Neanderthals or erectus?
I have wondered the same thing, ogres trolls etc, distant memories? maybe.
It's theorized that the wooly rhino could've been the original unicorn
Yes. The island had giant storks and lizards. I'm sure they had stories about dragons. Could a stork have dropped a human baby that it was carrying off to eat? And contact with other humans would've led to stories of giants.
Marvelous questions! Indeed, just read an article that ice age era symbols in cave art have been deciphered as transmitting calendrical data. Our ancestors must have passed down to us incredible knowledge in our myths, legends, and religions. There's a great video about the oldest myth in the world here on RUclips. Some of the information we are receiving has been so attenuated by the expanse of time as to be like unto mere whispers in our dreams. Somebody on a linguistics channel once asked if it's possible that we might have some relic of a neanderthal linguistic feature in one of our known languages. Definitely another intriguing question.
It's possible. There is such a thing as cultural memory, after all.
The discovery of Homo Floresiensis brings to mind the legend of the Menehune people of the Hawaiian islands.
This could be an instance of island dwarfism, no?
There are myths of small humans from peoples on every continent on Earth....
@@Imsuper656neat
Thank you for sharing this hard work. This was a great show. Chris
Good data and great presentation. Thank you both.
Super interesting!
Hey Ettore! I'm so glad you could contribute to this.
How perfect was the timing of this discovery right when the Lord of the Rings movies were at their peak. I immediately started reading Scientific American and I’ve been semi obsessed with ancient humans ever since.
Very interesting and really well explained by Dr. Baab. Thank you very much.
such a great channel this is
so glad I've subscribed
So you are discounting the locals talking about them, their stories of interacting with them? If I recall, according to the stories passed down around 4-5 generations interactions between the tribes (counts of baby stealing etc.. etc..). Personally I don't dismiss the stories, yet others do.
There are similar stories about the menehunes in Hawaii.
@@carinaekstrom1 ja, 'tis very cool how all our cultures are intertwined in some way. Thank you for sharing that ... I did not know this.
They do discuss intermixing at 23 minutes.
@@EarnestWilliamsGeofferic danke, this was a while back yet there was no mention of the stories from the local tribes ... there were talks of them being around as recent as a 1.000 years ago my friend ... пока пока)
I think that the lady was only discounting the possibility of them still being around, or she thinks it's very unlikely at least.
She describes everything so well.
Most interesting discussion. It certainly broadened my perspective about the Floriensis.
Great to see Dr. Baab again!
I came across your work thanks to the youtube channel E. D. G. E. great work and thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us all. Subscribed and *Ding* all notifications.
Thank you so much for your support; yes, we need science & evidence in these weird times!
@@EvolutionSoup The big question about Homo Floresiensis is were they small & pea-brained because of inbreeding ???
Consider the Koala of Australia, which is so dumb that it will starve to death if you try to feed it Eucalipis leaves off the branch, and it will cling to your leg thinking you are a tree. The Koala's brain-to-body ratio is the lowest of any mammal and half of the space in its head for a brain is filled with fluid. Also, the Koala brain is smooth like a mouse brain, but in all fairness, a mouse is actually smarter. Or in short, the Koala is a creature that is going extinct due to being too stupid to adapt to changing conditions...
So is Homo Floresiensis really the result of island inbreeding, resulting in a hominid that is a rather deformed version of its ancestors ???
This was aweosme
This woman has extraordinary thought processes.
17:40
The large hobbit eating monitor on Flores was called Megalania.
23:30
Third possibility, we ate them.
(I don't think our genomes would be similar enough for us to interbreed)
Great discussion, would like to hear more about possible Lamarckism ties into pigmy traits of the hobbits and elephants but amazing show anyway!
I know it might sound stupid, but. Could Floresiensis be the result of convergent evolution? That is, a hominid-like creature that's not related to hominids, I mean, an ape common ancestor that branched off before hominid evolve, having to face similar evolutive pressures as hominids, so it evolves a similar body plan, not as much of a brain though. It would explain te lack of floresiensis DNA in modern humans and the weird mixture of modern and arcaic features
The bone structure would be more different, and those differences would be very obvious to scientists. Convergent evolution on this time scale, while in the realm of the possible, is very, very, VERY unlikely.
@@johnlittle8975 Yeah, you're probably right
@@nekoeko500 Not a stupid question though considering the crab situation. Most crabs aren't actually crabs.
@@johnlittle8975 I was thinking of that very thing, however, this is different in that going crab, gives an advantage regardless of what the crab-like evolved from. A hominid-like body plan does not give much of an advantage unless it comes paired to a big brain to get the most of those free hands. Also a big social brain is of importance, since you're basically worthless by your clawleed-fangless self
Multiregionalism is the idea that hominids developed not just in Africa.
Did anyone find the Ring? J/k, very informative, thank you. Subscribed!
One piece of 'evidence' pointing in the direction of violence is that there are legends and myths of modern humans hunting out and eradicating the 'hobbits' of Flores because they had a tendency of stealing their babies for purposes unknown.
Glorious !
On the lack of unexplained DNA in modern Indonesians, I feel it's worth mentioning that Denisovan DNA, while found in modern humans alive today, is not found in the modern inhabitants of the Altai Mountains. I'm just saying that it might be wise to look for unexplained DNA a little broader afield than just the island of Flores. Personally, I still favor the interbreeding theory because it's consistent with how homo sapiens have traditionally interacted with other human species.
In any case, I'm glad Dr. Baab mentioned all the major theories about how Homo floresiensis went extinct. It seems like most videos focused on them only mention the Genocide Theory. This is an interesting video, and
Homo sapiens arrives, sees a few Homo floresiensis: "Oh, look .... food!"
Ibu gogo legend
The real unasked question is, when did they migrate out of The Shire?
It might be that shrinking a Home Erectus causes an 'uneven shrinking'. Or it may be that longer arms were better for throwing spears, so there was selection advantage for 'long arms' (i.e. sort of staying the same length) at the same time that that were advantages to having a smaller body.
People wonder why if their were aliens, why not contact us? Because watching a civilization grow would be the most interesting, entertaining thing to watch in all the universe. Up until recently, we were all separate tribes of totally different people. So many wars, so many cultures. Catching a random war with tiny big headed men and cranes would be just one of the many insane things you'd see if you got to watch our civilization grow. Seeing rome grow from 1 village to an empire... your mind would explode.
I love this channel nature and true ❤
Check out the PBS ducumentary "Lost Tribe of Palau". There is a lot of evidence that miniature humans populated a lot of the Pacific. There is living memory of them on Hawaii and here in the Philippines.
There's film documentary of men on that island made in the 70s by French film man
Hello Dr. Baab, this was so very interesting to watch today. My question for you is.. Is there a possibility that this species of humans are still alive and well there? I've been told this several times from people who have lived there all their lives. I'd love to know your thoughts when time permits. Much Thanks!!
At 27:45 minutes in we ask Dr Baab about this very same thing :-)
@@EvolutionSoup Grazie, I will take another listen.👍🏼
On a darker note, these little folks could have been a food source for early modern humans.
And...
The reason there is no mystery DNA in modern day Indonesians is probably due to the fact that our genomes were just too different. We naturally probably would not see them as partners.
Has there been any comparative genetic studies done between H. Floresiensis and modern island natives?
They have not been able to get DNA From H.Floresiensis in part because the hot and humid climate is not good for preserving DNA. She said in the video that they did look at the DNA of locals who have lived on the island many generations and there is no indication that any such breeding occurred. I believe that Floresiensis would have been far too different from H Sapiens for breeding to have occurred, although of course I can;t say for sure, but it seems really unlikely to me, these things are way too primitive.
Legends of a small creature on Flores cannot be a coincidence.
Say something about the endocast of LB1's skull, Doctor.
Stone tool tech can tell you a lot about timeline too. I have been following since this discovery. I believe H. Floresiensis is a late H. Erectus affected by island dwarfism.
Dr Baab is outstanding. Very informative, particularly on the points of debate which is great!
Very interesting. You skipped mentioning the Ayta Magbukon people of the Philippines who have about 5% Denisovan DNA, the most known of any modern human group.
I haven't scrolled through all of the comments below, so apologies if this is a repeated question: I understand that the body proportions and particularly the brain size probably eliminates this possibility, but is it possible that floresiensis was simply a pygmy people of another contemporaneous species, as Negritos in Philippines and Baka of the Congo basin are to us?
Nope. Too many different features. They aren't human.
Still alive on the island to this day people 3foot tall
Andaman and Nicobar islands are inhabited by people with short stature. People in Indonesia report people with short stature, so does people from Philippines, yet these people somehow are usually not mentioned.
There was a dwarf species of mammoths that evolved in the Aleutian islands off Alaska, similarly isolated
Would be interesting to see a comparison between H. Floresiensis , luisentis and H. Naledi . Both seem on thr surface to be niche evolved "steps back" from Erectus , or closer to H. Habilus to this lay person. Given we give credence to convergent evolution with other animal species , it seems egotistical not to condider these outliers as an example of this with hominids .
Thank you
I usually think of the prospect of a human Lazarus taxon like this: what are the chances that the only evidence would be hundreds of thousands of years old if they still exist?
Are there any known mutagens commonly found on the island?
Varanus komodoensis evolved into its large size on continental Australia, along with its extinct close relative Varanus prisca. V. komodoensis dispersed into Indonesia before undergoing a range contraction during the late Pleistocene and Holocene to its current distribution. Its not a true case of island gigantism.
dragon+volcanos+hobbit= run Frodo!
Frodo was much smarter.
@@robinlillian9471 Yeah, he wrote a series of books. His pseudo is Tolkien, we all know it was Frodo.
Don't forget the bab boons they are still evolving. ? ?
Doc Roberts and her distant cousins the Hobbits. ? ?
Is there any connection between these people and the people of the Andaman Islands ?
I'm from Indonesia, and about 5 years ago in Aceh (in Sumatera / Western part of Indonesia), there is a sighting of small human living in the jungle called suku Mante (means the Mante tribe). This is the youtube linkruclips.net/video/JegW8k93qTM/видео.html (sorry the video are in Bahasa), are these suku Mante and Homo Floriensis related ? Thank you
Primitive? Primitive? Primitive again? Is primitive the word we use, to discriminate the human species that went extinct? It is so diminuitive, like Neanderthals were disabled and didn't make it. And we ourselves are all Super Man.
Why would you use the word primitive anymore? I think it is unfair to non-western people, just because we do not understand their culture from face to face. Why call other routes of human development primitive? We can't even talk to them, so, how can we judge them? When I'd call you primitive, we might end in court and I must pay. When we call millions of extinct people primitive, nobody raises his hand in protest. How come?! Yeah, interesting, interesting they all comment. And the next ten years nothing will happen.
Homo Florenesis, Ebu Gogo (The monkey which eats Anything) in Indonesian stories, captured and ate young humans and were wiped out as a result.
Remember for 200 years before the discovery of the remains. Locals and Europeans talked about sightings of little people. Back in the 1980s people laughed at us cryptozoology followers.
Not laughing so much now......
Would have been nice to see a stature graphic with comparisons of Homo Hablis, Hobbit and African Pygmy.
I know the video says only 1 other island has been found to be perhaps another dwarf species. My question is...are there more islands out there next to Flores that hasn't been explored as much? Perhaps there will be some hidden cave with more bones out there? I'm sure that not all the islands have been explored by modern humans either.....also would there be any signs of modern humans cannibalizing the homo floresiensis?
Thank you, excellent, have they tried to check DNA from Home Flor. ? Oops listened more and heard answer! Thx excellent.
Could someone please tell Karen, there is film footage of people floreinensis alive to this day, some as small as 3 foot ,
Do you think that the home florets is could be the homo neladi, but since this they have found dwarf homo erectus. Different site on the same island. Homo florensis looks like they made it to Java.
I'm confident that there are at least 6 different Relict Hominins that persist to this very day...Feb. 2022. Hobbitt's included.
Many thanks. Very interesting.
Very diplomatic management of differences between Australian and Indonesian scientists.
Would have been good to focus less on cutesy ‘hobbit’ feet and more on hands. A key discriminator between H and Au is hand structure.
Please anybody will help and reply
I feel just like Mr. Spock
"Fascinating "
It's weird how people who've never had in any way interacted with each other came up with this creatures on their own. If it were lies, their description should have varied.
People in here still believe there are hobbits in the wild and they are referred more to as ghost than living creatures.
RE: evidence of interbreeding. What if there was interbreeding, but the offspring, like mules, were infertile? Differend species altogether?
Was the climate always tropical?
Good question. Somebody else here mentioned, that older species of humans are below sea level, now. Oceans levels have been a lot lower, in Europe you could WALK from the European continent to Great-Britain, in a week or so. I bet in the Indonesia region, the map has once been different than today. And that is related to the climate.
You can search more info online, yourself. Maybe climate change is a political thing now, nobody will deny ice ages, or desserts forming. Sometimes religious people will refer to the Bible, in discussions about human history, it happens, and you'd better praise their faith, discussion is useless. However, the Sahara history is a surprise, there were animal bones found, suggesting there has been rainforest with elephants and gazelles there. And the sea broke through the dunes, later. In northern Africa, they even found whale fossils. Just watch it now, it is lots of sand dunes. Maybe Indonesia has been cold and moderate, ages ago. Who knows? Watch out, when people think they know it all, they might easily overlook questions like the one you asked. Climate has a huge effect, of course.
Why not come right out and state that the local paleontologists were going out of their way to keep the Hobbits from being identified as a separate species, and the visiting paleontologists said they were.
Maybe the "hobbits" may have island hopped. I don't think island dwarfing. ESPECIALLY if the bones are of similar age.
Food for thought
All the prehistoric hominids fit the category of the "Sixth Day's Creation of Man..." Adamites have a different Father.
Why wouldn't their brains get smaller if the island dwarfism was caused by a lack of resources? Larger brains needs a lot of energy. Nothing says evolution can't make a species dumber if that is beneficial for the individuals survival.
Dr Darrwon three tape should animal planet 2015 last see in 1977 it means it may be still there? Why UN, UNO Who and international countries make a energetic team to find with better equipment and security madam I need a chance I want explore I am like Herison Ford. I want to reveal the truth will any body team of people internationally will help I am from South Asia India.
12:56 photo of my ex. Damn, she’s even more beautiful since we broke up…
Most evidence would be coastal which is at this time under water.
Environmental survival is the fittest and food.
I find much of this to be highly speculative.
there are still some arownd they aremidgets or dowarfs
But did they enjoy parties under the big tree, the exchanging of gifts, and pipeweed?
Pigmi 🐘 elephant and cool blooded animal lizard like Komodo became big scientists says it's Island effect.
Dr K-Baab
What about tools, were there any primitive tools found…
Yes. Towards the end of the video she says that the last evidence of the types of tools they seem to have used was 50,000 years ago. Primitive Oldowan styled tools I think.
@@MidKnightblue0013 thank you, yes I heard that as well, although after I posted my comment,…
What about current day Pygmy in Africa?
I like the idea of homo erectus being stuck there. I'd could see a lot of inbreeding that could result in these changes.
But how did primitive human ancestors get to these islands in the first place?
The only reasonable explanation is that homo erectus or whatever the hobbits ancestors were, made rafts and were seafaring to an extent.
@@BaltimoresBerzerker Yes I get that and maybe erectus could do it though it speaks volumes for their tech ability, but here they're talking about homo habilis or even earlier species. Could they really have figured out how to do that? I mean Flores is far enough but Philippines is a real stretch.
@@abstractacus1598 Judging from their remains being there, they must have. The sea level was much lower then, so it would have been a much shorter voyage than it is today. But it's still immense! Many archeologists doubt if anatomically modern humans were seafaring in the paleolithic but there's no reason to think we didn't. Our relatives in other hominid groups must have been curious and inventive in their own ways.
@@BaltimoresBerzerker Indeed, but there's no evidence for seafaring on the scale of getting to the Philippines at that time. I can easily ascribe fully modern humans doing that but more primitive forms? With brains hardly bigger than modern apes? Doesn't seem possible.
@@abstractacus1598 How else would they get there? The neanderthal had a larger brain than modern humans, and we're just now starting to acknowledge their potential for art and abstract thought. But even with their larger brains, they went extinct so brain wiring maybe more important than size. As we speak the average human brain size has been shrinking with every passing generation (not well known but a fact). So I don't see brain size being a prerequisite for being a seafaring people group.
It's been a pleasure bouncing ideas back and forward by the way my dude! Have a great day!
Madam please reply can you help
Aren’t there humans today that have proportionally shorter lower limbs?
They now no their were human ancestors in china at 2.1 million years ago. Still would say that the homo neladi makes more sense.
As someone who identifies as an ancient hominin I'd like to point out that the term " hobbit" is derogatory and their preferred pronoun is " halfling". Just don't call them p3cks!
Was that a movie 🍿 reference from Willow? Lol.
That one true skull find, was proven to be a birth defect I thought.
Flores is not that small tho...
What's wrong with another satisfied that like you take good care of your friends have to consider the three years old Kakashi acting like you Mobile plan
I admire her work and appreciate this channel but the interpretation of this group of fossil specimens is far fetched. It just has too many unknowns and weak inferences. The fossil record of "hominins" as they are called poses more questions than answers. Let's keep learning.
Well, that is science for you, never ending discovery.
Indonesians and pinoy know you’re wrong about them being extinct. People that call themselves “scientists “ can be so arrogant
Scientists run on things they can prove and test for. Not mythology
Look up the PBS documentary "Lost Tribe of Palau". There is actually a huge amount of evidence for these miniature humans being widespread throughout the Pacific.
Pinoy have a lot of mythical creatures, Capri, aswang, dwende ect ect that some still believe are real but there's zero evidence for any of it.. if you can show a hobbit then science will take notice but if all you have is hearsay then you have nothing
Aussies found them
Cannibal in the jungle?
I saw that video. It was pretty intriguing!
They went extinct from the orks. Duh.
Not enough iodine on an island in the middle of the ocean?! What was the brain size of the person who came up with this one? Iodine deficiency is only a problem in the middle of continents thousands of miles from the ocean, or if you only eat food from far away that is deficient. The hobbits had to eat locally.
You have iodine deficiencies all over the globe, including on islands and in coastal communities. The area they were found in would have been inland, depending on when they actually lived. Having been inland, the soil could also be iodine deficient itself, meaning that any food not coming from the sea (as well as their fresh water) would have low amounts of iodine. Iodine deficiency is still a problem in parts of German and Norway, eg, even to this day. It's not as simple as 'eat some fish'.
Hi ghost of Homo genus feature from 2024 . There is no DNA to this day, but thay did some work with the proteins ( palaeoproteomics ) and long story short H. floresiensis came from H. habilis and lived on the island from 700000 years ago.