In 2003 , archeologist calculate for evidence of the migration of modern humans from Asia to Australia stumbled across a belittled , fairly complete frame of an extinct human species on the Indonesian island of Flores , which came to be known asHomo floresiensis . Or , as it became more commonly known , the Hobbit , after the humble , breakfast - guzzling creatures from J.R.R. Tolkein’sThe Hobbit .
The species was ab initio thought to have survived until relatively recently , around 12,000 years ago , before further analysis pushed that date back toaround 50,000 years . But one retired professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta say that evidence that the species ' continued existence may have been overlooked , and the Hobbit may still be awake today , or at least within living retentivity .
In an sentiment while forThe Scientistpromoting his forthcoming bookBetween Ape and Human , Gregory Forth indicate that palaeontologists and other scientist have overlooked autochthonous cognition and accounts of an " ape - man " living in the timber of Flores .
“ My aim in writing the ledger was to find the best explanation — that is , the most rational and through empirical observation intimately supported — of Lio accounts of the creature , ” Forthwrote in the piece . “ These let in story of sightings by more than 30 eyewitnesses , all of whom I spoke with instantly . And I resolve that the good style to excuse what they told me is that a non - sapiens hominin has subsist on Flores to the present or very recent times . ”
He writes that local tribe zoological science by the Lio people inhabiting the island check stories of humans transforming into animals as they move and adapt to novel environments , which he likens to a type ofLamarckism , the inheritance of acquired physical characteristics .
" As my fieldwork revealed , such posited changes reflect local observations of similarities and difference between a supposed ancestral specie and its differentiated posterity , " he says .
The Lio identify these creatures as animals , not having the complex language or engineering science that humans have . However , their eerie similarity to humans is take note .
" For the Lio , the ape - man ’s appearance as something incompletely human makes the beast anomalous and hence debatable and perturbing , " Forth write .
For now , the closest we can definitively dateH. floresiensisbeing alert is still 50,000 days ago . But Forth urges that autochthonous knowledge should be incorporated as we inquire hominin organic evolution .
" Our initial inherent aptitude , I suspect , is to view the extant ape - humanity of Flores as whole notional . But , taking in earnest what Lio people say , I ’ve found no good reason to opine so , " he reason out . " What they say about the creatures , supplement by other variety of grounds , is fully coherent with a surviving hominin mintage , or one that only went extinct within the last 100 years . "
This articlefirst appearedin April 2022 .
