Study backs 'hobbit' island dwarfism theory

[Cidersomerset]

Interesting article two new human species acknowledged........I think Loyd Pie's
Star being maybe next !!

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17 April 2013 Last updated at 01:55
Study backs 'hobbit' island dwarfism theory


How an ancient human species may have shrunk as a result of island dwarfism

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A diminutive species of human whose remains were found on the Indonesian island of
Flores could have shrunk as a result of island dwarfism as it adapted to its environment.

A study of the remains of the creature, nicknamed the "hobbit", shows that it is possible
for it to have been a dwarf version of an early human species.

The hobbit co-existed with our species until 12,000 years ago.

The research has been published in the Royal Society's Proceedings B Journal.

Since its discovery in 2003, researchers have struggled to explain the origins of these
metre high, tiny-brained people, known scientifically as Homo floresiensis.One popular
theory is that the hobbit evolved from a relatively large brained and large bodied human
that was prevalent in east Asia, known as Homo erectus. The theory is that after H.
erectus moved to Flores, it began to shrink in size over the generations by a process
known as island dwarfism, which has been seen to occur in other species.

The Hobbit The hobbit: Could island life have shrunk this creature to diminutive
proportions?

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67033000/jpg/_67033261_hobbit.jpg


Critics though argue that it would be impossible for erectus's brain to shrink so much in
relation to its body. Alternative theories are that these creatures are either a small
group of modern humans, Homo sapiens, whose brains and bodies have been prevented
from growing normally because of a wasting disease, or that they are descendants of
tiny-brained ape-like creatures.

New scans by a Japanese team which includes Dr Yousuke Kaifu of the National Museum
of Nature and Science, Tokyo, shows that the hobbit's brain was a little larger than
previous estimates had suggested. Moreover, Dr Kaifu and his colleagues have also
carried out a comparative analysis of the ratio of brain to body size of present-day
humans which they say indicates that it is indeed possible for erectus's brain to have
shrunk to the size of the hobbit's.

"Our work does not prove that erectus is the ancestor of floresiensis," Dr Kaifu told BBC
News. "But what we have shown is that it is possible (and counters the argument) by
many people that floresiensis's brain is too small to (be consistent with the view that it
is a dwarf form of erectus)"

Dr Kaifu's analysis backs an earlier study of the hobbit's brain cases by Prof Dean Falk
of Florida State University in 2005 and 2007. She concluded that the hobbit was a
separate human species. She told BBC News that she believed that the Japanese
researchers have "nailed it".

"The authors make a compelling case that H. floresiensis could be descended from an
early Homo erectus population," she said. "With all the hoopla surrounding floresiensis,
this rigorous analysis is most welcome."

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67037000/jpg/_67037334_hobbit624.jpg

Continue reading the main storyThe origin of the hobbit inforgraphic
Theory 1: Some critics say that the hobbit isn't a separate species at all, but belonged
to a group of modern humans whose size was restricted because they had a disease.

Theory 2: Others believe that it evolved from a tiny-brained, ape-like creature that
travelled from Africa millions of years ago.

Theory 3: But the new research suggests that an early human species that lived in Asia
called Homo erectus arrived on the island and underwent dwarfism.

Continue reading the main story

Prof Falk said that she did not believe that the Japanese analysis excluded the
alternative hypothesis of an as-yet-undiscovered small-brained ape-like ancestor that
migrated from Africa. That was a view echoed by Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural
History Museum in London.

"Personally I don't think it solves the problem," he told BBC News. "There are primitive
features in the skeleton of floresiensis which for me suggests that it comes from quite a
primitive form of human: one that may have been around two million years ago rather
than one million years ago".

Professor Stringer said that the debate over floresiensis is part of a much wider
discussion among scientists in the field which is resulting in a new and exciting retelling
of the story of how humans emerged.

"It is a fascinating find because it shows that human evolution took a number of twists
and turns. It isn't just about the evolution of us modern humans, but actually there are
lots of other species around".

"Floresiensis was a failed experiment that lasted to within the last 50,000 years or so
and we are the last survivors of all these other experiments in evolving humans".


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[Cidersomerset]

Denisovans.........Scientists Discover New Race of Human Beings

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Were 'hobbit' hominids island dwarfs?

April 16, 2013



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Remains of Indonesia's hobbit-sized humans (L) and modern human (R) in
Yogyakarta, on November 5, 2004. Japanese scientists on Tuesday waded into a
row over so-called "hobbit" hominids whose remains, found on a remote Indonesian
island a decade ago, have unleashed one of the fiercest disputes in anthropology.
Japanese scientists on Tuesday waded into a row over so-called "hobbit" hominids
whose remains, found on a remote Indonesian island a decade ago, have unleashed
one of the fiercest disputes in anthropology.

The most detailed computerised scan of a skull of Homo floresiensis—"Man of
Flores"—backs theories that the minute humans were a local product of evolution,
they said. Marooned descendants of a hominid called Homo erectus, these people
progressively "dwarfed," becoming smaller and smaller to match the availability of
food on the island, they suggested. The findings are a knock to rival hypotheses
that surfaced after an Australian-Indonesian team unearthed the bizarre remains in
a cave in 2003. Dubbed after the wee folk in J.R.R. Tolkien's tale, the "hobbits"
were just over a metre (3.25 feet) tall, weighed around 25 kilos (55 pounds) and
had a brain roughly the size of a chimp's, our closest primate relative. The find
raised huge questions about the human odyssey. Was H. floresiensis a separate
species? And if so, how come it shared the planet with Homo sapiens some 13,000
years ago, when—so far as was known—anatomically modern man was the sole,
supreme strain of human? A team led by Yousuke Kaifu of the National Museum of
Nature and Science in Tokyo measured the brain capacity of "LB1," the most intact
specimen out of nine found on Flores, using a computed tomography (CT) scanner.
They put the brain size at 426 cubic centimetres (14.4 fluid ounces), somewhat
higher than earlier estimates of around 400 cc (13.5 fluid ounces), but still only a
third of a H. sapiens brain, which is around 1,300 cc (40.5 fluid ounces). The small
brain size, argues the Kaifu team, is consistent with a slimmed-down descendant of
Homo erectus—"upright man" who was the first human to leave Africa. H. erectus
lived from around 1.7 million years ago to roughly 50,000 years ago. Fossil
evidence points to a creature that was about the size and weight of H. sapiens, but
with a smaller brain. Kaifu's team believe that the hobbits' ancestor was a
scrawnier, Javanese version of erectus. Its brain size would have been around 860
cc (29 fluid ounces).

Its descendants, cut off from the rest of the world, went through thousands of
years of diminution, scaling down in size to match availability of food on the island,
according to their theory. This phenomenon, known as insular dwarfing, is well
known among biologists. Indeed, Flores at the time had a pygmy elephant called a
stegadon, butchered remains of which were found in the floor of the hobbits'
cave. "Contrary to expectations by some researchers, it is possible that large-
bodied Javanese Homo erectus migrated to the solitary island and evolved into
Homo floresiensis by marked island dwarfism," Kaifu believes. Two other ideas have
come forward to explain the mysterious folk. One is that they were descendants of
a much earlier, small-brained hominid called Homo habilis. But, say critics, no
evidence has ever been found that this human reached Asia. The other is that the
Flores bones are simply those of H. sapiens who suffered from a neurological
disability called dwarf cretinism, possibly because of iodine deficiency in their diet.
This would have made their brains abnormally small. But, say naysayers, cretinism
does not explain how the little hominids were smart enough to kill animals, use fire
and wield stone tools to butcher their prey. The insular dwarfism theory is not new,
but Kaifu said he can further back it by a computer simulation from 20 worldwide
populations of modern humans. These show that the scaling down of H. floresiensis'
brain, in line with its tiny body, is entirely possible. "New models of the brain-size
reduction in the evolution of H. floresiensis... show (a) more significant contribution
of scaling effect than previously claimed," according to the paper, appearing in the
British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. More information: Research
paper: rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rspb.2013.0338Journal
reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-04-hobbit-hominids-island-dwarfs.html#jCp

http://phys.org/news/2013-04-hobbit-hominids-island-dwarfs.html