science news for kids

The Hobbit for Real: Homo floresiensis

There is an exciting science news for kids that you have read today. Are your kids familiar with the Hobbits? Do they ask you whether the is any Hobbit in the real life? The current discovery can help you answering the question.

• Homo floresiensis is the real Hobbit

Homo floresiensis actually a species of human species that lived for about 17,000 years a go. H. floresiensis is actually discovered in 2013 in Flores, Indonesia. In the Ling Bua Cave in the remote area of the island, the first specimen of the species if discovered. The specimen is a 3.5 foot-tall and predicted as a 30-year old female that is now still called the LB1. The discover is pretty great for the scientist found the complete skull and nearly the whole skeleton, including the foot bones and some part of pelvis bones. The report is published in the 2004 Nature Paper as a journal. According to Mark Collard, a biological anthropologist from Simon Fraser University, this species can be associated to the other hominins outside the Neanderthals.

• It is the Hobbit

The scientist claimed that the LB 1 can be called “the Hobbit”, the tiny folk creature in J.R.R. Tolkien’s book. According to tan article in the Journal of Huma Evolution which was published in 2009, the small figure of LB 1 is not an anomaly like people thought that is why it can be science news for kids who love the Hobbit and the history of human evolution.

“The Hobbit” live about 74,000 up to 17,000 years ago in Flores. The discovery is still under the research. Some paper in 2005 published several articles about H. floresiensis. Amazingly the similarities between the Hobbit in J.R.R. Tolkien’s book go more and more. In the current study which was revealed in January 14, 2016 explained that the H. florensies is also a clue to find the other hominins species in Indonesies, especially in the Sulawesi. The scientist predicts that the ancestor of H. florensiensis comes from the Asia continent. Therefore, they suspect more hobbits that might be found in Sulawesi.

Then, how did they live? The Homo floresiensis is considered as a modern species. In the same cave where the LB 1 was found, some utensils to cook and to hunt animals are also found. The scientists estimate the era when the LB 1 lived by comparing the fossil with other fossil which was found in the cave. They found some komodo and bird fossils. It can be an interesting science news for kids.