The 'hobbits' may have died out when drought forced them to compete with modern humans, new research suggests

 

Image courtesy of Lanmas via Alamy

Joel Kontinen

Darwinian  evolution and climate change seem to be the standard for how the hobbits died out,  but the only solution to this dilemma was that these humans suffered from a disease that made their heads grow small.

We might not forget that the all are the descendants of  Adam and Eve.

Homo floresiensis — a small ancient human species nicknamed the "hobbit" — may have gone extinct around 50,000 years ago because declining rainfall levels reduced the prey available for hunting. This may have forced them to migrate to areas where they competed with modern humans, new research suggests.

The rainfall shortage would not have been the only reason why they went extinct, the team noted. A volcanic eruption that occurred around 50,000 years ago may also have been a significant factor in their extinction.

So far, fossils of the hobbit have been found in only one cave, known as Liang Bua, on Flores island in Indonesia. Since the discovery of H. floresiensis was first reported publicly in 2004, scientists have been trying to determine how the diminutive species lived and why it went extinct.

Now, in a paper published Monday (Dec. 8) in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, scientists report that rainfall on the island appears to have declined considerably before 50,000 years ago. They also found that the population of Stegodon, a genus of a now-extinct elephant relative that the hobbits hunted, also diminished before vanishing from Flores around 50,000 years ago.

to determine how rainfall on the island changed, the team studied a stalagmite from Liang Luar, a cave on Flores that is close to Liang Bua. Stalagmites grow when water evaporates and forms calcium carbonate. The new growth also has small amounts of other minerals, such as magnesium. Stalagmites don't grow as fast during times of water shortage, and the growth that does occur tends to have less calcium carbonate and more magnesium, the researchers noted in their paper. This means that by measuring the ratio of magnesium to calcium carbonate, the team can determine when rainfall decreased or increased, and by how much.

The researchers found that average annual rainfall declined from 61.4 inches (1,560 millimetres) 76,000 years ago to 40 inches (990 mm) 61,000 years ago. The island continued to have this reduced rainfall level through 50,000 years ago. At that point, there was an eruption at a nearby volcano, and a layer of ejected rock covered the island.

When the team analyzed the remains of Stegodon teeth, they found that the number of these animals decreased on the island between 61,000 and 50,000 years ago, before vanishing after the eruption. The researchers think the reduction in rainfall led to a decrease in Stegodon populations, making life more difficult for the hobbits as they formed a major part of their diet.

As rainfall declined, Stegodon populations may have migrated to the coasts of the island, with the hobbits following them.

"We suspect that if the Stegodon population were declining due to reduced river flow then they would have migrated away to a more consistent water source," Nick Scroxton, a research scientist of hydrology, paleoclimate and paleoenvironments at University College Dublin and co-author of the paper, told Live Science in an email. "So it makes sense for the hobbits to have followed."

It's possible that moving to the coast could have brought the hobbits into contact with Homo sapiens groups who were expanding throughout the region. This contact could have resulted in competition for resources and even intergroup conflict, Scroxton suggested. Additionally, the volcanic eruption around 50,000 years ago would have made things even worse for the hobbits.

"This looks like a very impressive study," said Julien Luoys, a palaeontologist at Griffith University in Australia who has conducted extensive research on hominins but was not involved in the new research, told Live Science in an email. A reduction in rainfall can have a major impact on an island as small as Flores, he noted.

"There's only a limited amount of space on an island, and only so many types of environments that can be harboured," Luoys said. "When things get drier, an animal can't simply move off the island, and any potential refugia they could use are going to either disappear or become very crowded, very quickly."

Debbie Argue, an honorary lecturer in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University, who was not involved in the work, also praised the research. "The paper gives us an excellent insight into a changing climatic environment in the region and is a most welcome contribution to knowledge about past conditions on Flores," Argue said.

Source:

Owen Jarus 2025 The 'hobbits' may have died out when drought forced them to compete with modern humans, new research suggests | Live Science 8. December

Ancient tools on Sulawesi may be clue to origins of 'hobbit' hominins

 

Imaage courtesy of Budianto Hakim et al.

Joel 

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi was a likely stepping stone for ancient hominins to reach nearby Flores, the home of the mysterious Homo floresiensis

Who were the hobbits, the small humans found in Indonesia? Their remains are found on the island of Flores, and some say that they were suffering from a condition called microcephaly, a neurological disorder that still causes some individuals to have an abnormally small head.

”Seven stone tools found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are the earliest evidence ever discovered of ancient humans making a sea crossing, dating back up to 1.4 million years.

They may provide clues to how a tiny human species, nicknamed “hobbits”, ended up on the nearby island of Flores.

The first of the artefacts was found embedded in a sandstone outcrop at a site called Calio by Budianto Hakim at the National Research and Innovation Agency in Indonesia in 2019, and a full excavation uncovered six more tools in the same outcrop.”

Source: 

James Woodford 2025 Ancient tools on Sulawesi may be clue to origins of 'hobbit' hominins | New Scientist 6 August

 

 

 

How did Micronesia be populated?

 Kuva: Publc Domain. 

Joel Kontinen

How did the Micronesian islands be populated, according to Genesis? They probably got their inhabitants after God made the nations choose their language in Genesis 10, 

This also shows how H. floresiensis or the also known as the Hobbits. came about.  

Source:

Zahn,  M.Laura.2022, Human migrations into Micronesia Science 1July. 

Some Evolutionists Believe That The Hobbit Was A Denisovan

 

Daderot, Public Domain.

Joel Kontinen

The debate on the status of the Hobbits or Flores Men has been quite lively in the past few years. (You can read more here, here and here.) According to fresh research, the Hobbit was not a distinct human species but a true H. sapiens suffering from iodine deficiency.

Found on the Indonesian island of Flores, the diminutive Hobbits were named after the heroes of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth story.

New evolutionary research has shown that the hobbits (H. floresiensis)   are Denisovans, who were close relatives of the Neandertals. .

According to science daily, "To shed light on the prehistory of maritime Southeast Asia, the study researchers analyzed more than 400 modern human genomes from across the world, including more than 200 from the islands of Southeast Asia and New Guinea. Scientists hunted specifically for genetic sequences that were significantly different from those usually detected in modern humans, because such DNA may have come from extinct human lineages such as H. floresiensis or H. luzonensis."

We are starting to piece together a picture of the Denisovans, one of our closest cousins, and a group that still lives on in the DNA of many people today.

According to the model based on Genesis, the Neanderthals were Adam’s descendants just like us. They probably lived in Europe during the ice age following the Flood of Noah and it seems the Denisovans where their closest comrades.

Source:

Choi ,Charles Q 2021. Identity of mysterious 'Hobbits' possibly found   Live Science  31 March.

A Chinese Dwarf May Solve the Hobbit Syndrome

A skeleton found in China belonged to an individual with a rare form of dwarfism. Image courtesy of Sian Halcrow et al. 2019.



Joel Kontinen

a Chinese dwarf may solve the hobbit syndrome. Hobbits or Flores Menn has been quite lively discussed in the past few years. (You can read more here, here and here.). According to fresh research, the Hobbit was not a distinct human species but a true H. sapiens suffering from iodine deficiency.

This is what the Chinese dwarf symbolises. Although not as old as the hobbits, it was a good 5,000 years old, posted on December 13 in the International Journal of Paleopathology, it may be a case for hobbit. However, this limbs of this dwarf that were shorter-than-her average stature.

It may well solve the hobbit syndrome.

Source;

Lanese, Nicoletta. 2019. 5,000-Year-Old Human Found with 'Extremely Rare' Form of Dwarfism Live Science (16 December).

New research: Hobbit was a modern human suffering from iodine deficiency

Did Frodo and Sam suffer from iodine deficiency?



Joel Kontinen


The debate on the status of the Hobbits or Flores Men has been quite lively in the past few years. (You can read more here, here and here.) According to fresh research, the Hobbit was not a distinct human species but a true H. sapiens suffering from iodine deficiency.

Found on the Indonesian island of Flores, the diminutive Hobbits were named after the heroes of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth story.

Recently, Charles Oxnard, an emeritus professor at the University of Western Australia, and colleagues published a paper in PloS ONE, comparing the bones of humans suffering from cretinism, chimpanzees and healthy humans to those of Hobbits or Homo floresiensis. The study suggests that Hobbits were H. sapiens whose small size probably resulted from cretinism caused by iodine deficiency.

In 2008 Professor Oxnard and colleagues examined the Hobbit skull. According to ScienceDaily they found out that it ”showed evidence of endemic dwarf cretinism resulting from congenital hypothyroidism and were [sic] not a new species of human.”

More recently, Oxnard and his colleagues tested their theory by examining the post-cranial skeleton of Hobbits. The study supported their view.

Earlier last month another research team also found evidence for the theory that Hobbits are fully human.

Robert Eckhardt, professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology at Pennsylvania State University, and Maciej Henneberg, professor of anthropological and comparative anatomy at the University of Adelaide, examined the skull of the Hobbit known as LB1 that was found in the Liang Buan cave on Flores and published their findings in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Professor Eckhardt criticises the approach of some researchers who have classified the Hobbit as a distinct species on the basis of a single asymmetrical skull instead of seeing it as a deformed H. sapiens skull.

Eckhardt adds that although LB1’s braincase was badly asymmetric, this does not make Hobbit into a species distinct from H. sapiens.

According to professor Eckhardt, there still are people on the island of Flores who resemble Hobbits. The jaw and teeth of present-day Floresians hardly differ from those of Hobbits although they have a bigger and more symmetric skull.

Commenting on his research, professor Oxnard says: "Cretinism is caused by various environmental factors including iodine deficiency -- a deficiency which would have been present on Flores at the period to which the dwarfed Flores fossils are dated."

Professor Oxnard points out that cretinism is still quite common in Indonesia, including the island of Bali that is not far from Flores.

Seen from the creation perspective, the research results of these two Hobbit studies were expected. All people are the descendants of Adam. As the apostle Paul said, ”The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth … From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth.” (Acts 17:24, 26).

Sources:

Researchers offer alternate theory for found skull's asymmetry. PhysOrg.com .(6 September 2010).

'Hobbit' Was an Iodine-Deficient Human, Not Another Species, New Study Suggests. ScienceDaily. (28 September. 2010).

Were Hobbits Master Toolmakers?

Hobbits were obviously master toolmakers.



Joel Kontinen

In 2003 tiny human fossils were found on the Indonesian island of Flores. The 1-metre- tall Flores Man (Homo floresiensis) was soon dubbed Hobbit after Tolkien’s diminutive Middle Earth hero.

It now seems that these Hobbits have left us proof of their dexterity. They used sharp-edged stone tools.

Archaeologist Mark Moore of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, and his colleagues examined over 11 000 stone tools found in the Liang Buan Cave on Flores island.

With a brain capacity of a third of H. sapiens, Hobbits were nevertheless able to craft so good stone tools that when people classified as H. sapiens later came to the island, they used the very same pattern in their tools. This became obvious when the archaeologists examined the layers in the cave. H. sapiens obviously used the same cave after the Hobbits.

Moore even suggests that H. floresiensis and H. sapiens might have interacted.

Although Hobbits were small, we have no reason to think that they were not fully human. They were obviously no more primitive than individuals classified as Homo sapiens. Like us, they were the descendants of a real man called Adam.



Source:

Culotta, Elizabeth. 2009. Did Humans Learn From Hobbits? ScienceNOW Daily News. (17 April) http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/417/3

The Hobbit Wars: Did An 18 000 Year-Old Hobbit See A Dentist?

Joel Kontinen

An Australian paleopathologist has raised a stir by suggesting that a tiny human fossil claimed to be 18 000 years old actually had a tooth filled by a dentist. Called hobbits because of their size (1 meter), the remains of H. floresiensis were found in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 and 2004.

As recently reported by ScienceNow Daily News, Maciej Henneberg of the University of Adelaide photographed the jaws of a H. floresiensis specimen (LB1) in 2005. When he later studied the photos he thought he saw evidence of a whitish cement filling, a technique dentists used in the Flores area in the 1930s instead of metal amalgams.

The hobbit wars have been raging almost continually since their initial discovery, with many researchers claiming that H. floresiensis is just a modern human suffering from microcephaly or some other condition that stunted their growth and should not be classified as a distinct species. Some scientists, however, remain sceptical of such claims.

It seems that the hobbit wars are far from over. Peter Brown of the University of Adelaide, who was part of the research team that initially reported the hobbit find, insists that he investigated the LB1 specimen (in 2004) and did not seen any signs of filling.

As is often the case with fossil finds, researchers tend to guard their specimens jealously and are reluctant to let their colleagues study the skulls. The Indonesians who have the hobbit remains in their possession are analysing them. They have denied Hennenberg’s research team access to them so he is not able to verify his claim.

Dating human ancestors has often been a vey tricky process. Different dating methods and starting assumptions can produce results that differ considerably from each other. For instance, In 1967 Richard Leakey found a skull now known as KNM-ER 1470 (which stands for Kenya National Museum, East Rudolph, museum acquisition number 1470) in the Lake Turkana area of northern Kenya. The skull looked very modern and very human-like but was initially thought to be 2.9 million years old.

Following the discovery, a heated exchange of ideas continued unabated on the pages of the journal Nature for over ten years. During that time, the initially published date fell from 2.61 million years to 1.88 million years in 1981.

Thus, if past struggles are any indication, the hobbit wars might well continue for a long time to come.

Read more abbout hobbits here.


Sources:

Culotta, Elizabeth. 2008. Tempest in a Hobbit Tooth. ScienceNOw Daily News. 24 April http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/424/2

Lubenow, Marvin L. 1992. Bones of Contention. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Hobbits Becoming More Human

Hobbit skull. Image: Wikipedia


Joel Kontinen

A new study suggests that the hobbits, a diminutive people whose remains were found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 and 2004, were real humans after all. They were originally classified as Homo floresiensis, a species distinct from Homo sapiens but the dispute about their status has never abated.

Named after J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth heroes, they became known all over the world after scientific journals published a drawing by Peter Schouten that describes a tiny ape-like man carrying a furry animal on his shoulder.

Many researchers think that the hobbits’ small stature (one meter or just over three feet) and small head were the result of microcephaly, a neurological disorder that still causes some individuals to have an abnormally small head. They maintain that it is not justified to classify them as a distinct species. For instance, in 2006 Pennsylvania State University published a study stating that the small head of Homo floresiensis was due to microcephaly.

As reported by ScienceNow, a new study conducted by Peter Obendorf and Benjamin Kefford of the RMIT University of Melbourne and Charles Oxnard of the University of Western Australia at Crawley concluded that the small stature of the Homo floresiensis was not the result of genetic defects. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that the hobbits’ size was caused by a condition known as cretinism. This is due to a lack of iodine. Comparing the pituitary flossa in a hobbit skull with individuals suffering from cretinism, they found a significant match and thus suggested a new theory.

The remains of twelve hobbits were originally found in a cave in Liang Bua. Obendorf stated that it is an area where people still suffer from goiters that results from iodine deficiency. The new study even mentions that local myths include stories of tiny people who lived in caves.

While it may be too early to discard the microcephaly hypothesis altogether, the case for hobbits being real humans is much stronger than before. We should probably do well to forget the image of an ape-like man carrying a furry animal on his shoulder and start describing hobbits as real people. It seems that the distinction between hobbits and humans is found only in Tolkien’s Midde-Earth but not on this earth.

Read more about hobbits here.


Source:

Culotta, Elizabeth. 2008. Were the Flores Hobbits Really Cretins. ScienceNow Daily News 5 March 2008. http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/305/3