The Hobbit Was Not Human

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Video: The Hobbit Was Not Human

Video: The Hobbit Was Not Human
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The Hobbit Was Not Human
The Hobbit Was Not Human
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Discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, the remains of a humanoid creature (Homo floresiensis, a man of flores), nicknamed the hobbit because of its short stature, were carefully studied by various research groups. However, the question of whether it is possible to classify the "hobbit" as a separate type of people is still open: many experts are inclined to believe that this ancient inhabitant of our planet suffered a certain disease, which led to microcephaly and abnormalities in the development of the brain

Another study of the skull shape of Homo floresiensis, carried out by a joint team of scientists from New York University at Stony Brook and the University of Minnesota, strengthened the position of supporters of the first of these hypotheses.

"The structure of the skull we have studied - and especially the part that covers the brain - resembles ancient remains from Africa and Eurasia, which are more than one and a half million years old, but not the skull of modern humans," says team leader Karen Baab Baab). In the course of the study, Dr. Baab and her colleagues collected a wealth of information about the identification points of the "hobbit" skull, as well as extinct hominins, modern humans and primates. An analysis of the differences between the right and left sides of the skull revealed a low degree of asymmetry in the remains of Homo floresiensis, which directly contradicts the assumption of microcephaly (significant violations of symmetry are noted in those affected by this disease). “We consider these asymmetries to be acceptable for this hominin population,” says Ms Baab. “In addition, we must not forget that external destructive factors have been affecting the skull for several tens of thousands of years.”

The results obtained by American scientists are in excellent agreement with another recent study, which was also conducted by representatives of New York University at Stony Brook. William Jungers and Susan Larson studied the upper and lower limbs of the Floresian man and noted many of the structural features that distinguish the "hobbit" from modern humans.

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