Researchers suggest that a decrease in rainfall on the island of Flores and a volcanic eruption about 50,000 years ago may have caused the extinction of the ancient human species Homo floresiensis, dubbed the "hobbit." This is reported by UNN with reference to Live Science.
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Scientists have found that the average annual rainfall on the island of Flores, where the hobbits lived, gradually decreased: from 1560 mm 76,000 years ago to 990 mm 61,000 years ago. This reduced level of rainfall on the island continued to fall 50,000 years ago. In addition, at that moment, a volcanic eruption occurred nearby, and a layer of ejected rock covered the island.
The team determined the change in precipitation by analyzing a stalagmite from Liang Luar Cave, where the ratio of magnesium to calcium carbonate indicates past humidity levels.
Simultaneously with the decrease in precipitation, the population of stegodons, the main prey of hobbits, decreased. These animals were distant relatives of elephants and are now extinct, and a study of stegodon teeth showed that their numbers sharply declined between 61,000 and 50,000 years ago, and after the volcanic eruption, they completely disappeared from the island.
According to Nick Scroxton from University College Dublin, the decrease in river flow could have forced stegodons to "migrate to a more stable water source," and hobbits "followed them."
However, migration to the coast, where stegodons likely moved, could have brought hobbits into contact with groups of Homo sapiens, who were expanding throughout the region at that time. Nick Scroxton suggests that this could have created competition for resources or even conflicts.
Paleontologist Julien Louys called the study "very impressive" and noted that reduced rainfall particularly affects small islands.
"There's a limited amount of space on an island, and only a certain number of types of environments that can be used for habitation," Louys said.
And he added: "When it gets drier, an animal can't just leave the island, and any potential refuges it might have used will either disappear or become very crowded, very quickly."
The authors of the study emphasize that the extinction of hobbits was likely the result of a combination of several factors: prolonged drought, a decrease in the stegodon population, possible contact with modern humans, and a volcanic eruption, and together these changes could have made the survival of the Homo floresiensis species impossible.
Recall
An international team of researchers is studying the Semiyarka settlement in the Abai region of Kazakhstan, which may be one of the largest Bronze Age centers. Fortifications, metallurgical remains, and ceramics of the Cherkaskul and Alekseevka-Sargary cultures have been found on the territory.