The Curious Case of “Dwarf Human Species aka Hobbits”
Do you know there was a time when humans half the size of us walked on this planet? They weren’t merely a figment of imagination that would be immortalized in fiction. But they were as real as we are, who left an indelible presence in the Past.
Note: Don’t get confused with dwarfs living with us. They are the result of genetic disorders because of which their heights impede. I am not talking about them. For instance — Peter Dinklage aka Tyrion Lannister.
Since childhood, we’ve been enthralled by fiction worlds in which dwarfs are the characters. Whether it’s Tolkien’s Lord of Rings, Swift’s Gulliver travels, or Viking’s mythology, dwarfs are portrayed as a separate species. We love them, don’t we? But we only consider them as fiction and an entire species can’t be possible.
Let me tell you a riveting and interesting tale of the real hobbits that once roamed the planet.
Who were Homo Floresiensis aka real Hobbits?
It’s a story of an entire human species that thrived on Flores island in Indonesia 100,000 to 20,000 years ago. They were Homo Floresiensis aka Hobbits. Anthropologists discovered their fossils in 2004 in Liang Bu cave on the Flores island in Indonesia. The discovery shook Humanity and its entire preconceived notion and pride in knowledge.
Imagine a place where each and every member of the species is a dwarf which is normal for them. The only irregularity there is being a tall person. It’s weird but fascinating at the same time, isn’t it?
Where were they come from?
Pre-history is always muddied with the prism of interpretations and perspectives. For some, one thing or way is right while for some it’s another way. There are a few conjectures regarding the origin of Hobbits.
First: They were Homo sapiens who migrated to the island a long time back from the mainland. Rising water separated them from the entire species and they got stuck on the island permanently. The island changed their body morphism and structure to make them shorter than their ancestors due to a lack of availability of rich nutrients and fibers. Foster rule turned them like that. They became a different human species whose time period correlates with Homo Sapiens.
Foster rule says that members of the species get bigger & smaller depending on the availability of food and nutrients in the region.
Foster’s rule, also known as the island rule or the island effect. For example, it is known that pygmy mammoths evolved from normal mammoths on small islands.
Second: Some denied this hypothesis. They exhorted that the species didn’t originate from Homo sapiens. They were always a separate species whose origin is still in limbo.
How did they become extinct?
1. Change in Climate
Throughout the entire pre-history, species emerged and went extinct due to the climatic factors predominantly. The same thing happened with Homo Floresiensis aka Hobbits as well. Around 20,000 years ago they became extinct. This was the time when the ice age was reclining and the weather patterns changing. They might haven’t coped with the new climate and couldn’t remain sustained for long.
2. Intermittent volcanic eruptions
Flores island comes in the ring of fire of the Pacific ocean. It’s a highly sensitive and dangerous zone, where volcanoes are active. Intermittent volcanic eruptions disturbed the flora and fauna of the ecosystem of the island which became lethal for hobbits. They perished from the timeline of pre-history.
That's the end of another human species similar to Homo habilis, Homo erectus, etc. Our dwarf relatives were lost in the chaos of past forever. Though we are lucky to at least know about them thanks to sophisticated technology and archaeology.
If you want to know more about them:
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Homo-floresiensis
- https://youtu.be/hp123flyH8I
- A brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
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