Hobbit cousins
Hobbit cousins
Updated 11:19pm (Mla time) Nov 02, 2004
By Michael Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on Page A15 of the November 3, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
"NEW species revealed: tiny cousins of humans."
"Little lady of Flores forces rethink of human evolution."
These intriguing headlines tell us about one of the most extraordinary fossil finds in half a century. The fossils, found in September last year in a rock shelter on the island of Flores in Indonesia, were reported in last week's issue of the British science journal Nature by a team of scientists from the Indonesian Centre for Archaeology and the University of New England in Australia. The fossils have been named Homo floresiensis, which means they are considered to be very close relatives to Homo sapiens (that's us).
The most exciting discovery was that of a nearly complete skeleton of a female, estimated to date back about 18,000 years. Eventually, more fossils have been found, the remains of at least seven other individuals, dating back between 13,000 and 95,000 years.
Tiny cousins
The female skeleton tells us Homo floresiensis stood only about a meter high, with a brain about one-third the size of modern humans. This is why Homo floresiensis has been described as our hobbit cousins (a New York Times editorial called them "Homo Tom Thumbus").
The new findings remind us how complicated human evolution can be. When I first took a physical anthropology course way back in 1979, the human family tree was relatively simple and straightforward: various Austrolopithecus species, each one having a brain larger than their predecessors, finally branching off into Homo. We had Homo habilis, the tool user, followed by Homo erectus (hey, easy now, erectus refers to our standing on two legs). Then finally, we came along and in our arrogance named ourselves Homo sapiens, the wise, the thinking Homo.
These days, I have to update every few weeks my lectures and student handouts for physical anthropology, adding new fossil findings (for Homo alone there are now nine different species discovered) and new theories around these findings.
How do the Flores hobbits fit into our family tree? The speculation is that they descended from the Homo erectus line. Much to the dismay of racists, all humans actually trace their ancestors back to Africa. Some 1.8 million years ago, Homo erectus began their long journey -- spanning many generations -- out of Africa.
One group eventually reached China, represented by the fossil remains of Peking Man. Another group reached Indonesia about 1.6 million years ago, and we have many fossil representatives here such as Java Man, Solo Man and Trinil Man. ("Man" here is generic; some of the fossils could have been female.)
The latest fossil findings tell us that Homo erectus continued to evolve. On the island of Flores, where food resources were scarce, the relatively large size of Homo erectus (they were about the same height as Homo sapiens) became a disadvantage. Natural selection favored a smaller body build as found in Homo floresiensis. They were small and their brains actually a size smaller than that of chimpanzees, but the fossil sites also yielded evidence that our hobbit cousins used fire, and fashioned stone tools. They were apparently able to hunt down the Stegodon or pygmy elephants, as well as giant lizards up to three meters long.
Based on the assortment and size of hunted prey, anthropologists speculate that Homo floresiensis had probably discovered the advantages of group cooperation for hunting, and may have developed language.
Philippine hobbits?
Why did they become extinct? One theory is that volcanic eruptions about 12,000 years ago may have wiped them out, together with the pygmy elephants.
But it's intriguing too that local folklore on Flores island includes stories about the "ebu gogo" (translated as the grandmother who eats anything) described as being short, long-haired, long-armed and pot-bellied that lived in caves and climbed trees. The ebu gogo were said to have disappeared after the Dutch arrived in the 16th century. Were the ebu gogo actually Homo floresiensis?
What does all this mean for the Philippines?
The oldest human remains we have are of Tabon Man, a skullcap found in Palawan Island and estimated to be about 16,000 years old. Tabon Man was Homo sapiens, meaning if you put flesh to the bones, Tabon Man would look like you and our brothers and sisters and mom and dad.
So far, Philippine excavations haven't yielded Homo fossils other than Homo sapiens but the fact that nearby Indonesia yielded so many fossil remains of Homo erectus and now, Homo floresiensis, makes me wonder if perhaps there are similar fossils waiting to be discovered. The province of Cagayan has yielded remains of the Stegodon. Were they hunted down by local bands of Homo floresiensis?
Talking fossils
I tell my students the fossils are alive, speaking to us, asking us questions. Our well-known cousin, Homo neanderthalis, hung around between 200,000 and 30,000 years ago, meaning they co-existed with a more recent newcomer, Homo sapiens. They had bigger brains than Homo sapiens, yet they disappeared. Was it a problem adapting to the natural environment? Or, shudder, did Homo sapiens wipe them out?
Homo floresiensis allows us to let our imaginations run even wilder. Maybe it's a collective memory of these hobbit cousins that account for folk tales, found throughout the world, about small human-like creatures, from leprechauns and hobbits to our “duende” [dwarfs] and “capre” [monstrous giants].
Did Homo floresiensis have any social contacts with Homo sapiens? Could they have inter-bred? Could some of us be carrying genes from our hobbit cousins?
Perhaps we are indeed a wise and thinking species, constantly wondering about the human condition and our existence. We've had satellite dishes listening to the universe, hoping to detect evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. That search speaks of our loneliness, a fear that we might be alone in the universe. Sadly, that search has not yielded any evidence of extra-terrestrial intelligence.
The fossil findings here on earth have been kinder, telling us there have been others, almost human, maybe even human, who preceded us, who co-existed with us. The fossils remind us to be humble enough to recognize how new we are on earth and how precarious our existence is.
Perhaps millions of years from now, some new human species might stumble upon our fossil remains. I would hope they'd marvel at what we accomplished even with our primitive technologies. I would hope, too, that they will not sadly shake their heads as they realize that it wasn't volcanic eruptions, or giant asteroids smashing into earth, that wiped us out. Let it not be said that we were the first species wise enough to make ourselves extinct.
Updated 11:19pm (Mla time) Nov 02, 2004
By Michael Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on Page A15 of the November 3, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
"NEW species revealed: tiny cousins of humans."
"Little lady of Flores forces rethink of human evolution."
These intriguing headlines tell us about one of the most extraordinary fossil finds in half a century. The fossils, found in September last year in a rock shelter on the island of Flores in Indonesia, were reported in last week's issue of the British science journal Nature by a team of scientists from the Indonesian Centre for Archaeology and the University of New England in Australia. The fossils have been named Homo floresiensis, which means they are considered to be very close relatives to Homo sapiens (that's us).
The most exciting discovery was that of a nearly complete skeleton of a female, estimated to date back about 18,000 years. Eventually, more fossils have been found, the remains of at least seven other individuals, dating back between 13,000 and 95,000 years.
Tiny cousins
The female skeleton tells us Homo floresiensis stood only about a meter high, with a brain about one-third the size of modern humans. This is why Homo floresiensis has been described as our hobbit cousins (a New York Times editorial called them "Homo Tom Thumbus").
The new findings remind us how complicated human evolution can be. When I first took a physical anthropology course way back in 1979, the human family tree was relatively simple and straightforward: various Austrolopithecus species, each one having a brain larger than their predecessors, finally branching off into Homo. We had Homo habilis, the tool user, followed by Homo erectus (hey, easy now, erectus refers to our standing on two legs). Then finally, we came along and in our arrogance named ourselves Homo sapiens, the wise, the thinking Homo.
These days, I have to update every few weeks my lectures and student handouts for physical anthropology, adding new fossil findings (for Homo alone there are now nine different species discovered) and new theories around these findings.
How do the Flores hobbits fit into our family tree? The speculation is that they descended from the Homo erectus line. Much to the dismay of racists, all humans actually trace their ancestors back to Africa. Some 1.8 million years ago, Homo erectus began their long journey -- spanning many generations -- out of Africa.
One group eventually reached China, represented by the fossil remains of Peking Man. Another group reached Indonesia about 1.6 million years ago, and we have many fossil representatives here such as Java Man, Solo Man and Trinil Man. ("Man" here is generic; some of the fossils could have been female.)
The latest fossil findings tell us that Homo erectus continued to evolve. On the island of Flores, where food resources were scarce, the relatively large size of Homo erectus (they were about the same height as Homo sapiens) became a disadvantage. Natural selection favored a smaller body build as found in Homo floresiensis. They were small and their brains actually a size smaller than that of chimpanzees, but the fossil sites also yielded evidence that our hobbit cousins used fire, and fashioned stone tools. They were apparently able to hunt down the Stegodon or pygmy elephants, as well as giant lizards up to three meters long.
Based on the assortment and size of hunted prey, anthropologists speculate that Homo floresiensis had probably discovered the advantages of group cooperation for hunting, and may have developed language.
Philippine hobbits?
Why did they become extinct? One theory is that volcanic eruptions about 12,000 years ago may have wiped them out, together with the pygmy elephants.
But it's intriguing too that local folklore on Flores island includes stories about the "ebu gogo" (translated as the grandmother who eats anything) described as being short, long-haired, long-armed and pot-bellied that lived in caves and climbed trees. The ebu gogo were said to have disappeared after the Dutch arrived in the 16th century. Were the ebu gogo actually Homo floresiensis?
What does all this mean for the Philippines?
The oldest human remains we have are of Tabon Man, a skullcap found in Palawan Island and estimated to be about 16,000 years old. Tabon Man was Homo sapiens, meaning if you put flesh to the bones, Tabon Man would look like you and our brothers and sisters and mom and dad.
So far, Philippine excavations haven't yielded Homo fossils other than Homo sapiens but the fact that nearby Indonesia yielded so many fossil remains of Homo erectus and now, Homo floresiensis, makes me wonder if perhaps there are similar fossils waiting to be discovered. The province of Cagayan has yielded remains of the Stegodon. Were they hunted down by local bands of Homo floresiensis?
Talking fossils
I tell my students the fossils are alive, speaking to us, asking us questions. Our well-known cousin, Homo neanderthalis, hung around between 200,000 and 30,000 years ago, meaning they co-existed with a more recent newcomer, Homo sapiens. They had bigger brains than Homo sapiens, yet they disappeared. Was it a problem adapting to the natural environment? Or, shudder, did Homo sapiens wipe them out?
Homo floresiensis allows us to let our imaginations run even wilder. Maybe it's a collective memory of these hobbit cousins that account for folk tales, found throughout the world, about small human-like creatures, from leprechauns and hobbits to our “duende” [dwarfs] and “capre” [monstrous giants].
Did Homo floresiensis have any social contacts with Homo sapiens? Could they have inter-bred? Could some of us be carrying genes from our hobbit cousins?
Perhaps we are indeed a wise and thinking species, constantly wondering about the human condition and our existence. We've had satellite dishes listening to the universe, hoping to detect evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. That search speaks of our loneliness, a fear that we might be alone in the universe. Sadly, that search has not yielded any evidence of extra-terrestrial intelligence.
The fossil findings here on earth have been kinder, telling us there have been others, almost human, maybe even human, who preceded us, who co-existed with us. The fossils remind us to be humble enough to recognize how new we are on earth and how precarious our existence is.
Perhaps millions of years from now, some new human species might stumble upon our fossil remains. I would hope they'd marvel at what we accomplished even with our primitive technologies. I would hope, too, that they will not sadly shake their heads as they realize that it wasn't volcanic eruptions, or giant asteroids smashing into earth, that wiped us out. Let it not be said that we were the first species wise enough to make ourselves extinct.
posted by Dante at 10:25 AM
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