‘Hobbit’ humans scavenged Komodo dragon leftovers, study finds

The diminutive ancient humans known as "hobbits" were scavengers who ate raw meat left behind by Komodo dragons — not skilled hunters who cooked their food over fires, according to a study published Friday in Science Advances.newscientist+1

Komodo Dragons, Not Stone Tools

Researchers analyzed more than 3,000 Stegodon bone remains from Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores and found that marks previously attributed to hobbit stone tools were largely the work of Komodo dragon teeth. The dragon tooth marks concentrated on the fleshiest parts of the bones, while stone tool marks appeared in less selective areas, suggesting hobbits butchered carcasses only after the animals had already died — likely killed by Komodo dragons — rather than hunting them systematically.mezha+1

To test their hypothesis, the team fed a dead goat to a Komodo dragon and studied the resulting bite marks, comparing them to the ancient bone record. The results showed a clear pattern: the planet's largest living lizard beat the hobbits to the island's biggest prey.nationalgeographic+1

No Evidence of Fire

An examination of approximately 4,500 bone samples from Homo floresiensis layers at the site found virtually zero evidence of burning. "The rat bones demonstrate the pattern clearly — zero burned bones in Homo floresiensis layers, hundreds burned in modern human layers," said Elizabeth Veatch, one of the study's authors. Only a single Stegodon bone showed any sign of fire exposure, and that was most likely from a section of the deposit disturbed and heated by later modern humans.newscientist

The findings confirm earlier suspicions that charcoal and burnt bone previously associated with hobbits were actually the result of modern human activity from the past 40,000 years.phys+1

A More Primitive Lineage

The study strengthens the case that Homo floresiensis descended from a more primitive hominin lineage than previously assumed. Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London said the research shows H. floresiensis "cannot be reduced to a simple, smaller form of Homo erectus" and should be seen as a descendant of a lineage that arrived on the island more than a million years ago. Brumm Pobiner, a paleoanthropologist, noted that the hobbits probably survived on uncooked meat, plants, and insects for tens of thousands of years despite sharing their island with Komodo dragons.iflscience+1

"Claims of advanced behaviour have been slowly chipped away, but our study directly confirms our suspicion that Homo floresiensis did not use fire or hunt big game as was originally claimed," Veatch said.newscientist