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Scientists from Australia and Indonesia claim the discovery of a new human species named Ηomo Floresiensis.
The newly found human species is already nicknamed "Hobbit" (a Hobbit is a dwarf human in Tolkien books. Hobbit is a trademark of Tolkien estate).
As an inhabitant of the small Indonesian island of Flores, Ηomo floresiensis was about 1 meter tall and lived about 12000-18000 years ago, at the same time that Homo Sapiens (the species of modern humans) was expanding its presence on the planet. Homo Sapiens Sapiens was living together with Neanderthals in Europe.
Ηomo floresiensis probably evolved from an older species named Homo erectus, which left Africa and lived about 1 million years ago. Scientists think that these humans may had reached the island by boat.
In the island of Flores there are several detailed myths regarding small humans with the name Ebu Gogo, the last of these myths being as new as 100 years ago. Ebu Gogo are described to have a height of 1 meter and a primitive language.
The remains of Ηomo Floresiensis were found in September 2003 in a cave in the Liang Bua region. The skull and incomplete skeleton of a 30 years old woman, named LB1, among with bones from 7 other humans, are what the scientists have for further research on Floresiensis. It is considered that the "Hobbits" were living in the island from about 95000 years ago until a volcanic explosion destroyed all of them, together with pygmy elephants. These humans were probably of so small size because of the rarity of resources on the small Asian island of Flores.
The tiny human was probably living by hunting dwarf elephants and climbing trees in order to escape from dangerous Komodo Dragons. Homo Sapiens reached Australia 60000 years ago from Indonesia, so the two species may have had some form of contact.
The scientists who discovered the "hobbits" published their reports on the Scientific journal Nature.
- Special coverage by Nature
- Report by BBC
- Report by The Guardian
- Further coverage by The Guardian
- Report by Ananova
- Report by Jerusalem Post
- Discussion at Kuro5hin
- Report by USA Today
- Report by Boston.com
- Greek coverage by in.gr
- Article on Homo Floresiensis by Wikipedia.org You can also discuss in the Wikinerds Forum.