Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
I let my mind drift into the past to try to capture the emotions and feelings
of these tiny humans who had once been alive, sheltering in Liang Bua,
bringing in hunted game and vegetables, or bundles of firewood to be care-
fully used for cooking, warmth and light. I could see them in my mind's eye
carrying in river cobbles for the hearths, which emerged intact from the
sediment of the cave; selecting stones for anvils; squatting to make tools for
the butchering of Komodo dragon,
Stegodon
and giant rat. I imagined them
discarding the smashed remains of the skulls and the charred long-bones,
leaving the tools smeared with the fat, blood and hair that we would later
find and identify; imagined seeing them sitting quietly while concentrating
on some woodwork, or communicating while repairing or hafting imple-
The fact that they hunted large animals, used fire, and constructed
hearths suggests that hobbits may have been more intelligent than aus-
tralopithecines. I also think that what
Homo floresiensis
did
not
do might
have been indicative of intelligent behavior. Take, for example, the stego-
dont remains at Liang Bua. Even though these stegodonts were dwarfed
compared with their ancestors, the estimated weights for the adults still
ranged between 770 and 2,994 pounds. At least 47 stegodont individuals
were represented at Liang Bua, but the vast majority of their remains
stegodonts implies that
Homo floresiensis
was either unwilling or unable
seemed to know their own limitations.
Komodo dragons were another story. Like those that live today
on Flores and neighboring islands, adults may have grown to be 10 or
more feet long and would have considerably outweighed tiny hobbits.
Although these huge lizards ate carcasses of dead animals, they were
also stealth predators. If they were like their living descendants, their
razor-sharp teeth inflicted wounds that caused prey to become infected
with bacteria from their saliva. Bitten animals would have been sus-
