[Merged]"Hobbits" Were A Separate Species

[Still Waters]

While film buffs have been arguing over the need to make The Hobbit into three different films, anthropologists have been busy debating the origins of real hobbits, whose remains were discovered in Indonesia only a decade ago.

The origin of these hobbits has been controversial, as claiming they are a different kind of hominid closer to Homo erectus than Homo sapiens throws a wrench in many established theories of human evolution. But Frodo fans can delight in new evidence that hobbits did in fact belong to the extinct species Homo floresiensis.

http://www.popsci.co...eparate-species

[Big Bad Voodoo]

Never think on them as small humans. We have evidence that they become extinct in 17 000 BC but maybe they lived longer, why did they become extinct?

What about their territory? Mayans spoke about period when dwarves were on Earth. And they are not only.

Sometimes I think that Tolkien have had visions from previous lives.

Hobbits, Orks (Neanderthals), Dragon (Dinosaurs)....

Edited January 11, 2013 by the L

[+and-then]

^{He had an awesome imagination to be sure. He painted pictures with words and could sing about the pure love of honor also. He created a mankind into what we should be I think.}

[ash68]

Tolkein was a very knowledgeable man which is why his stories read as though factual. Back to these Hobbits,maybe like neanderthal man they interbred with humans and disapeared

[DKO]

I remember hearing theories that the Pygmy Aborigines of Northern Queensland descended from these hobbits. I think I read that on ATS though...

[coolguy]

This is a cool find.this is the frist i. Have hread of this they could be there own spices.

[Majikwayz]

haha...i just saw the Hobbit last night...perfect timing for this article. the movie was good btw.

[Indiogene]

Not sure if Hobbits ever existed, other than fairy tales and myths of "Little people" are likely based on miniature-sized adults who do exist under 4.6 feet tall. But the difference is a "race" of smaller-height humans with other distinct features: the Hobbits have more body hair including some grew on their large feet. And not only lived in a distant island of Indonesia, this race of little people are reported worldwide, further adds up to the mystery of their past existence.

[BNDGK]

Wow! I've been waiting for this for so long! Finally! I mean Tolkien actually recorded the facts about these people. The lineage, the differences in the families! Very precise with his writing.

[Abramelin]

It's interesting that in Indonesia these little people were called "Ebu Gogo" and in Africa "Agogwe".

I think we are looking for "Gogs".

In Ireland they are called "Grogochs" : http://www.ireland10...es/the-grogoch/

In Africa they are called "Agogwe": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agogwe

In Indonesia/Flores they are called "Ebu gogo": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebu_Gogo

And I should try to sleep.

+++++

EDIT:

Damn:

"Wherever you see two large leaning stones you know a Grogoch used to live there."

http://www.ireland10...es/the-grogoch/

EDIT:

Hey, they are even on the map!!

.

LOL Look, they made a documentary about these Gogs !!

At 2:20 in the video they invented the dolmen!!

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Edited February 8, 2013 by Abramelin

[sewampi]

Folktales from the Indonesian island of Flores tell of a mysterious race of little people called the "Ebu Gogo," who abducted children and spoke in murmurs. Scientists began to take the myths more seriously when in 2003, the remains of a new humanoid species called Homo floresiensis was discovered in caves on the island. Fossil dating suggests that H. floresiensis may have lived alongside modern humans as recently as 12,000 years ago.

However, since the discovery scientists have argued whether the specimen was a human with an abnormally small head or represents a new species in the human family tree. The diminutive creature [image] had a brain approximately one-third the size of modern adult humans.

[Collateral Damage]

Size of the brain is mainly important if equivalent to the body, right? So they were short with small brains. Does this mean they might of had some kind of intelligence?

[kane9]

Island dwarfism of H. Erectus seems the most likely explanation of the hobbits from what I have read but that would mean that Erectus managed to cross Wallace's line.

[Peter B]

Island dwarfism of H. Erectus seems the most likely explanation of the hobbits from what I have read but that would mean that Erectus managed to cross Wallace's line.

A few years ago I went to a talk by a leading Australian anthropologist (Colin Groves). His opinion, based on comparisons of skeletons, was that the hobbits were descended from the more primitive Homo habilis. This, of course, raises even more intriguing questions about how the hobbits got to Flores.

[PersonFromPorlock]

This, of course, raises even more intriguing questions about how the hobbits got to Flores.

How about as a very superior sort of hunting dog for larger versions of homo? Or in some other commensal role? Or maybe just as lunch-on-the-hoof. There's no real reason to think they existed in isolation from larger humans.

[Peter B]

How about as a very superior sort of hunting dog for larger versions of homo? Or in some other commensal role? Or maybe just as lunch-on-the-hoof. There's no real reason to think they existed in isolation from larger humans.

Mmmm! Short long pig! In terms of sheer grotesqueness (if that isn't a word, it is now) I love it!

But the problem is that the hobbits likely only evolved to their tiddly stature after arriving on Flores.