Homo floresiensis

Factual Questions
1

I’m fascinated by the “hobbit” humans. I read as much as I can find. But one thing no one seemed to address is how they got to the island. Have I just overlooked it? Are there any working theories?

2

Potentially, walked? The sea level has fluctuated a great deal over the past couple of million years.

3

During the The Last Glacial Period (LGP), c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago, sea level was about 125 meters (410 feet) lower than today. Here’s a map of the world at that time - the island of Flores is connected by land to Asia. So they could just walk there.

4

Possibly, of course. Although one report I read calculated that the fluctuations wouldn’t have been enough. It’s interesting I think that they were confined to that island and not the island closer to main land masses.

5

A lot of them, in fact.

There is even fairly good support that Homo floresiensis evolved far earlier than Homo erectus, and was contemporaneous with Homo Habilis. The variability of sea level, and possibility of “rafting” are all possibilities for any animal reaching this, or in fact any Island. Even over the more recent habitation of Homo Sapiens might have been accomplished by those means. Certainly modern anthropology considers those as possibilities in the absence of evidence of group migrations.

Tris

Google is your friend. Sometimes friends lie to you.

6

Rafting is certainly a possibility, but I think more likely they got a ride from the elves.

7

Well, no matter which of the migration models you pick;

https://www.nature.com/scitable/content/out-of-africa-versus-the-multiregional-hypothesis-6391

It would appear something like , h.erectus, mata menge, h. Floresiensis.

Or if you believe this outlier it was a sister to h.habilis, evolving on it’s own from Australopithecus.

So they evolved there, from about 1.5 million to 700kya onward.

This article outlining the common theory mentions the population evolving from a group marooned on island by rising sea levels

But this one mentions million year old stone tools found there implying possible sea travel abilities.

Heres the only mention specifically I found of.a theory on how their ancestors got there;
Most likely too IMO
ttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ten-years-flores-hobbit-human-evolution-fossil-puzzle-180953108/

Here’s a good summary of unknowns;
http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-floresiensis

8

Thanks for the links.