BBC – In Indonesia, the ancestors of the famous fossil hobbits found

Cave Liang-Bois in calcareous formations on the island of Flores in Indonesia, was first discovered as an archaeological site in 1950, but only in 2003 the first sensational discovery was made in it. As often happens in archeology, in the day when excavation going to be closed, the bones of a previously unknown hominid species during the Late Pleistocene were found

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their height does not exceed one meter, and dubbed hobbits

Found immediately caused a lot of controversy. which continues to this day. One group of researchers did not see anything valuable discoveries: they considered a “new” kind of just the people of the modern type, suffering from some disease such as Down’s syndrome. Another group of archaeologists were convinced that the ancient dwarf – an isolated kind of Homo erectus (Homo erectus)

The study of the anatomical structure of the most well-preserved of the individual female age 30 years (Flo) showed that there was nothing in common between the dwarfs from the island of Flores. with modern humans do not have: the skull (. the brain had a volume of 400 cc) four times less than human, and individual bone shape or ratio are similar to the bones of Homo erectus, ergaster (people working) and even Australopithecus. But the greatest similarity has been observed with the Dmanisi hominids from Georgia. However, the problem was that the findings of Liang Bua-dated age 50-100 thousand years,

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and the age of the bone remains of Dmanisi people – 1.7 million years

Thus, the scientists concluded that Homo floresiensis! – a dead-end branch of Homo erectus, who came to the island and not to continue the evolution. This is indicated as a set of stone tools hobbits found nearby. Moreover, most likely, the Hobbits coexisted with Homo sapiens.

In 2008, in China, in the caves and Maludun Lunlin were studied remains of other “new” age Homininae 11,5-14,5 thousand. Years . Chinese hominids had features characteristic of both archaic hominin such as H. erectus, and the man of the modern type.

On a completely other separate and previously unknown form of Homininae subgroup Homo erectus became known recently when Taiwan Strait Penghu in fishing nets hit a fragment of fossilized jaw with four teeth. Analysis of the content of fluoride in the bone tissue and sodium did not give the exact age of the finds. Based on a comparative study, the researchers came to the conclusion that Homininae had a strong resemblance to the fossil findings of Ho Hsien in south China, dated age of 400 ths., And belonged to a man isolated subgroup erectus with a fairly developed jaw and teeth.

The paradox is that the discoveries made in the last ten years in different parts of Asia, only complicate the understanding of the evolution Homininae: ancient remains belong to more advanced species than those that lived on the “recently”, although they were contemporaries of Homo sapiens populated the other part of the world.

After the scandal happened with the Indonesian paleoanthropology Teuku Jacob, who in 2004 without the permission of the excavation coordinator Mike Morwood took anthropological material from the National archaeological research center in Jakarta to study and returned in damaged condition, the Indonesian government banned the study of cave-Liang Bua. After a few years, they continued.

The evolutionary history of human floresiensis remained unclear. According to the most probable hypothesis, hominin, separated from the larger Homo erectus, reached the island and began to decrease in size. The reason for that served as their reduction could be the absence of predators and lack of resources, which is typical of the islands ecosystems. When did this happen?

In 2014, under the leadership of Geert van der Berg from the University of Wollongong (Australia) and Yusuke Kaifu of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo (Japan) in the basin of a dried river Soa (Mata- monument Menge) that the new sensational findings may shed light on the unsolved mystery of the Indonesian hobbits.

Just two articles telling about it, came in the journal Nature, 70 km east from the cave at Liang-Bois were found.

Findings is a fragment of a jaw and six teeth, belonging to three different individuals. It was found that the jaw of an adult hominin 20% less than the smallest hobbit jaw from the cave-Liang Bua. A two milk teeth belonged to the children.

However, dating of the remains showed,

that the “neighbors” hobbits lived here much earlier -.. 700 thousand years ago,

In one layer paleantropologicheskimi findings revealed a large number of primitive stone tools (chips and flakes, bifatsialnye cores of chalcedony, opal, rhyolite, chlorite, chert) no different from the stone industry hobbits out of the cave-Liang Bua.

The archaeologists say that they need more data to be able to classify found hominin from Mata Menge to a single taxon. However, based on the size and shape of bones, we can assume that people from Mata Menge were the ancestors of the hobbits out of the cave at Liang Bua, who were descendants of dwarf human erectus.