Homo floresiensis, better known as the “Flower Hobbit”
Scientists point to climate change as a likely cause of the extinction of the flower man.
The mysterious extinction of the so-called human “hobbits” (the species Homo floresiensisnot to be confused with the pygmies of Central Africa, with whom genetic links) would have been caused mainly by a sudden change in weatherand not by the arrival of A wise man to the Indonesian archipelago as previously thought, a new study suggests.
The small hominins (they were about 1.06 meters high) inhabited the island of Flores, Indonesia, and are known from remains found in a single cave: Liang Bua, discovered in 2004.
The species disappeared from the fossil record around 61,000 years ago, around the same time that modern humans began crossing the region on their way to Oceania, which led scientists, for years, to suspect a possible direct involvement of H. sapiens in its extinction.
The new investigation, on the 8th in the Communications Earth & Environmentreconstructed precipitation patterns in the region during the period in which H. floresiensis lived in Flores. The team analyzed oxygen isotopes and the calcium-magnesium ratio in stalactites and stalagmites from the Liang Luar cave, about 660 meters from Liang Bua.
The results showed that the ecosystem around Liang Bua became “dramatically drier” precisely at the time when Homo floresiensis disappeared, read a statement from the study authors. Annual precipitation will have fallen by around 37% between 76,000 and 61,000 years ago, from around 1560 millimeters to 990. Summer rainfall will have decreased further (around 56%) to around 450 millimetres. It was aridity, indirectly, that was largely to blame for the extinction of the “hobbits”.
The little humans ate elephants (also dwarfs, of the Stegodon genus) in that area, which depended on the Wae Racang River as a source of water. With climate change, the river seasonally dried up and herbivore populations collapsed, drastically reducing the food available for H. floresiensis.
In the Liang Bua fossil record, 92% of the remains of stegodon associated with the hunting activity of “hobbits” date back to between 76 thousand and 62 thousand years. After that, bones become rare and the very presence of H. floresiensis in the cave disappears. For researchers, this is a clear sign of abandonment of the site, in search of water and prey.
Yes, researchers adhere to the popular theory that Homo sapiens “killed H. floresiensiswhich, once displaced, may have been forced to compete for resources with the only species of the genus Homo still alive.
