In 2003, archaeologists looking for evidence of the migration of modern humans from Asia to Australia found the small skeleton of an extinct human species on the Indonesian island of Flores, later known as Homo floresiensis. Experts believe this ancient human species, also called the Hobbit, still lives in the forest on the island of Flores.
The species was originally thought to have survived until relatively recently, about 12,000 years ago, before further analysis pushed the date back to about 50,000 years. But a retired anthropology professor at the University of Alberta said the evidence for the continued existence of the species may have been overlooked, and the Hobbits may still be alive today, or at least in the memories of people living today.
In an opinion piece for The Scientist promoting his forthcoming book "Between Ape and Human", Gregory Forth argues that paleontologists and other scientists have ignored indigenous knowledge and records of 'ape humans' living in the Flores forests.
"My goal in writing this book was to find the best explanation, that is, the most rational and empirically supported, of Lio's story about these creatures," Forth wrote in the article as quoted by IFL Science, Thursday (21/4/2022). .
"This includes reports of sightings by more than 30 eyewitnesses, all of whom I spoke to firsthand. And I conclude that the best way to explain what they told me is that non-sapiens hominins have survived on Flores until recently or recently. this," he explained.
He wrote that the local folk zoology by the Lio people who inhabited the island contained stories about humans turning into animals as they moved and adapted to new environments, which he likened to a type of Lamarckism, the inheritance of acquired physical characteristics.
"As my fieldwork reveals, such proposed changes reflect local observations of similarities and differences between presumed ancestral species and their distinct descendants," he said.
Lio identified these creatures as animals, lacking the language or complex technology that humans have. However, their similarities to humans are noted.
"For Lio, the ape-man's appearance as inhumane makes the creature anomaly and therefore problematic and disturbing," Forth wrote.
For now, the closest we can determine the date H. floresiensis was still alive is 50,000 years ago. But Forth insisted that indigenous knowledge and information should be included when investigating hominin evolution.
"Our initial instinct, I suspect, was to think of the ape humans extant on Flores as completely imaginary. But taking what the Lio people said seriously, I don't find any good reason to think so," he concludes.
"What they say about the creature, complemented by other evidence, is entirely consistent with hominin species that are still living, or species that have only become extinct in the last 100 years."