Humans

Climate change may have killed ancient ‘hobbit’ hominins

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Homo floresiensis. Artist's impression of a group of Homo floresiensis with a freshly killed dwarf elephant (Stegodon sp.). The remains of H. floresiensis were discovered in 2003 at the Liang Bua Cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia. These hominids had an average height of 3 feet. They also had small brains but evidence suggests that they used fire and tools and hunted in groups. Flores was an isolated island that supported a unique range of fauna including dwarf elephants and large monitor lizards that H. floresiensis would have hunted. It is believed that H. floresiensis survived after the arrival of modern humans to the island but later became extinct.

Artist’s impression of a group of Homo floresiensis with a freshly killed stegodon (Stegodon florensis insularis)

MAURICIO ANTON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Severe drought caused by climate change may have led to the decline of Indonesia’s pygmy elephants and the “hobbit”-like humans who hunted them.

Until about 50,000 years ago, Homo floresiensis, standing about a metre tall, thrived on the South Pacific island of Flores by consuming meat from dwarf pachyderms called stegodons.

Researchers originally thought that the tiny hominins – whose bones were discovered…

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