Flores Man, nicknamed The Hobbit, disappeared thousands of years earlier than previously thought. The most recent traces of its existence date back 50,000 years.
Could modern man be the exterminator of his fellows? The debate is revived around the Hobbits of the island of Flores (Indonesia). The miniature man discovered in Liang Bua cave in 2004 is the subject of much discussion in archaeological and scientific circles. The team behind its excavation believed it to have disappeared 13,000 years ago. It would have been several thousand years wrong, according to a study published in Nature.
A brutal disappearance
The Flores man would in fact have disappeared 50,000 years ago. This completely redraws the chronology of the one who is also nicknamed the Hobbit, because of his small size. He would have measured 1.06 meters, and the volume of his skull did not exceed 380 milliliters, or one third of that of modern man. By measuring the level of uranium and thorium in the fossils recovered from the Liang Bua cave, the researchers set things straight: the first analysis was wrong.
” THE’Homo floresiensis seems to have disappeared shortly after the arrival of our species on the island of Flores, explains Prof. Maxime Aubert. The most recent Hobbit remains date back 60,000 years, but traces of stone tools have been traced as far back as 50,000 years. Then there are no more traces of these humans. “
An extermination
In fact, the man of Flores – who would have evolved from an ancient branch of the human family, theHomo erectus – almost did not coexist with modern man. The latter’s arrival on the island could well have had a devastating effect on the entire ecosystem. At the same time, the team from Wollongong University (Australia) analyzed animal remains. Vultures, giant marabouts but also Komodo dragons disappeared at the same time as the Indonesian Hobbit.
If there is a mystery as to the reason for the extinction of this hominid, Dr. Adam Brumm has his hypothesis. “They may have entrenched themselves in more isolated areas of the island of Flores, but it is a small island and they cannot have avoided our species for a long time,” he said. I think their days were numbered from the moment we set foot on the island. “
The Flores man undoubtedly experienced the same fatal fate as the Neanderthals in Europe and the Denisovans in Asia: our species simply exterminated them.
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