Hobbits May Still Roam an Indonesian Island, Scientists Think

Bright Side

Scientists think that hobbits—yes, real-life hobbits—may still be roaming an Indonesian island! These aren’t the ones from The Lord of the Rings, but a tiny human species called Homo floresiensis, nicknamed "hobbits" because of their short height. They were thought to have gone extinct around 50,000 years ago, but some researchers believe they could still be hiding deep in the forests of Flores Island. Locals have passed down stories for generations about small, human-like creatures living in remote areas, avoiding contact with people. Could these tales actually be true? If so, it would be one of the biggest discoveries in history—proof that another human species still walks among us!  Credit: Índios Isolados: By Gleilson Miranda/Secretaria de Comunicação do Estado do Acre, CC BY 2.5 BR, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/br/ , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%8Dndios_Isolados_4.jpg Homo Florensiensis: By Rama, CC BY-SA 3.0 FR, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/fr/ , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homo_Florensiensis-MGL_95216-P4150647-white.jpg Homo floresiensis cave: By Rosino, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homo_floresiensis_cave.jpg Índios Isolados: By Gleilson Miranda / Governo do Acre, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%8Dndios_Isolados_6.jpg CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ : Early evolution of Homo floresiensis: By Iwan Kurniawan, https://www.researchgate.net/figure/New-fossils-from-Mata-Menge-a-f-SOA-MM9-humerus-in-anterior-lateral-posterior-medial_fig1_382911625 Homo floresiensis: By Cicero Moraes et alii, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homo_floresiensis_v_2-0.jpg CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ : Homo floresiensis - facial approximation: By Cicero Moraes, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homo_floresiensis_-_facial_approximation_-_color_2.jpg Homo floresiensis - facial approximation: By Cicero Moraes, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homo_floresiensis_-_facial_approximation_-_cover_1.jpg Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00Hobbits might actually exist in real life, but these tiny people don't live in cozy,

00:06round homes built into hills like in The Lord of the Rings.

00:10They're probably on an isolated island in Indonesia, climbing mountains and hiding in

00:15dense forests.

00:16Hold up, are they even human?

00:19Well, the place we're talking about is the island of Flores, a paradise-like spot in

00:25the Indian Ocean.

00:27Today, it's famous for being home to the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard in the world.

00:34But in the past, it was also home to a very small human species, known as Homo floresiensis.

00:41In 2003, experts excavated a cave called Leong Boa and found over a hundred fossils of this

00:49species.

00:50This discovery was huge because it completely challenged our understanding of human history.

00:56I mean, previously, most experts thought that Homo sapiens, aka our species, were the

01:02only ones that had managed to travel beyond the Southeast Asian mainland towards New Guinea

01:07and Australia.

01:08But if that's true, how did these ancestors get to Flores Island?

01:14Before you answer by boat, let me just say that it's very unlikely that an ancient human

01:18species could have created vessels strong and big enough to cross the ocean.

01:23Maybe they swam there or even teleported.

01:26Jokes aside, the truth is we still don't know exactly how or when Homo floresiensis ended

01:32up over there.

01:34A recent study suggests they might have descended from Homo erectus, one of the first human-like

01:39species we know of.

01:41According to this theory, they probably traveled 450 miles east from an island called Java

01:47and made it to Flores about a million years ago.

01:51Since living isolated in Flores, their bodies shrank over the years and they ended up becoming

01:56really short.

01:57But that's just one theory, and there isn't much solid evidence to back it up yet.

02:02What we can say for sure is that they were really short compared to modern humans.

02:07At first, we thought they'd be about 3 feet 6 inches tall.

02:12But that changed in 2016 when experts found new fossils, including a tiny arm bone and

02:19some teeth that showed they were even smaller, about 2.4 inches shorter to be exact.

02:26These hobbits also had a very small skull and a tiny brain, about a third the size of

02:32ours.

02:34They had wide hips and shoulders, short legs, and big, flat feet.

02:39Overall, their bones were so small that at first experts thought they might belong to

02:44kids.

02:46But nope.

02:47Since they had wisdom teeth, it was clear they were definitely dealing with adult skeletons.

02:52Very small adults, though.

02:55Because of their tiny and curious appearance, the media started calling this ancient species

02:59the real-life hobbit, just like the characters created by J.R.R.

03:03Tolkien, you know, Lord of the Rings.

03:06Frodo Baggins?

03:08Anyway, why were they so small?

03:12There are two main theories.

03:13The first one, they weren't a different species at all.

03:17Some experts believe they could actually be Homo sapiens, just like you and me, but with

03:21a condition that causes the brain to develop smaller, kinda like microcephaly.

03:27However, many specialists rejected this idea because the anatomy of people with these kinds

03:32of growth conditions today doesn't really match what we see in the little people from

03:36Flores.

03:37Moving on!

03:39The second theory is something people call island dwarfism.

03:43Basically, when large animals live on isolated islands, they tend to get smaller because

03:49the food supply is limited.

03:51For example, there's this dwarf elephant that lived in Sicily and Malta a long time

03:56ago and it only measured about 3 feet tall.

04:00Meanwhile, its relative on the European mainland was about 13 feet tall.

04:05With a pocket-sized body, these animals need less food, which means they have a better

04:10chance of surviving on an island.

04:13Another factor that leads to this type of dwarfism is that these animals don't have

04:17to worry about defending themselves from large predators.

04:20I mean, if you're on an isolated island with no lions or tigers around, there is really

04:26no need to be huge.

04:28So this could be what happened to the Hobbit people.

04:32Studies show they lived in Indonesia at least 100,000 to about 50,000 years ago.

04:38But after surviving for so long, these short people mysteriously disappeared.

04:44It's possible that they vanished after 8 massive volcanic eruptions hit that region.

04:50This idea came up after researchers found a thick layer of volcanic ash right above

04:55where the fossils were first found.

04:58Even with this evidence, no one can say for sure if the eruptions were the reason for

05:02their disappearance.

05:04And recently, an anthropologist questioned this theory by saying they might still be

05:09alive today.

05:10Wait, what?

05:12It sounds crazy, but he actually talked to dozens of local people who believe they've

05:17seen a tiny Hobbit-like man in the flesh on the remote island of Flores.

05:23In fact, mysterious stories about sightings have been told long before the remains of

05:28Homo floresiensis were even discovered.

05:31So it's not like they made up these stories after hearing about the fossils.

05:37At least 30 people living there claim they've seen, with their own eyes, a creature that

05:41is halfway between an ape and a human.

05:45It had an ape-like face and was definitely smaller and hairier than a person, but it

05:49walked completely upright with both feet on the ground, just like a human.

05:55Locals call it Laihoa.

05:57But what should we call it?

05:58I mean, can this creature be our famous Homo floresiensis?

06:02Well, maybe.

06:05Anthropologist Gregory Forth has been working on the island of Flores since the 80s, and

06:08he says the locals' descriptions are strangely similar to what we imagine these ancient,

06:14short humans might have been like.

06:17You might be wondering if the Laihoa is just a legend, like a campfire story meant to scare

06:22people.

06:23And yeah, some of the descriptions definitely seem to go against basic science.

06:28Some people say that after they saw the creature, it just flew off or disappeared like magic.

06:34But the researcher points out that a lot of locals also gave very detailed physical descriptions

06:40of the creature.

06:41Sure, the details varied a bit, which is pretty normal with different people witnessing the

06:46same thing, but they didn't mention anything about the creature having crazy superpowers.

06:52Now, Forth is starting to wonder if we really are the only species of humans left on the

06:58planet.

06:59They could be, in fact, real-life hobbits.

07:02And that brings us back to a question from earlier in the video.

07:05Are they even human?

07:07Hmm, maybe yes, maybe no.

07:10It is possible that the creature spotted on the island of Flores is actually an uncontacted

07:15population of modern humans, but it could also be an unknown species of monkey.

07:21However, since there's no other evidence for either of these ideas, the best guess right

07:25now is that a creature similar to an ape-man could still be out there.

07:31Okay, but if this creature shares the planet with us, how come no one's ever taken a photo

07:36of it?

07:37Well, the ape-man is part of that island, just like other rare creatures like Komodo

07:43dragons.

07:44And, unlike Bigfoot believers, locals probably don't go out actively searching for this creature.

07:50According to the anthropologist, they have no reason – financial, social, or otherwise

07:55– to find an ape-man.

07:57And since they're mostly unaware of scientific research, or any theories saying these creatures

08:02don't exist, they don't really care about trying to prove the scientific world wrong.

08:09Smith wrapped up his research in 2018, but the anthropologist says that since then, other

08:14people have seen the strange creature walking around the island of Flores.

08:18Two young guys from the UK went there, mostly for a snorkeling trip.

08:22But at some point, they hiked up a mountain and saw something that really looked like

08:27the ape-man.

08:28So, who knows?

08:31Maybe you'll also get a chance to see the real hobbit when you visit Indonesia!

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