Daderot, Public Domain.
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.
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