• “Mythological” human creatures
of the Island of Flores Indonesia
• Ebu means “grandmother”
• Gogo means “he who eats
everything”
• Small hairy creatures
• Ate everything raw
• Had their own language but
learned the human language as
well
• Ebu Gogo would raid crops, ad
crossed the line when a baby was
stolen and was eaten
• For this action they chased them
away
• They offered them bales of dry grass
as fodder
• They came back a few days later
with a burning bale of grass
• Ran the Ebu Gogo’s out of the cave
• Last seen heading west in the
direction of Liang Bua, where the
hobbit was found
• Father Theodor Verhoeven
• Years ago Vergoeven was brought to Flores to teach religion
• First used the cave as an elementary school
• Verhoeven then decided that the floor was a great excavation
project in 1950
• In 1960 large amounts of stone artifacts and pottery was found
• The first excavation lead by Raden Panji Soejono
• Director of ARKENAS
• National Research Centre for Archaeology
• Was planning to dig through the last 100,000 years
• It was believe this was the point in time there were humans,
although there were little evidence about the arrival of modern
humans and extinction of earlier human populations.
3.5 metres down
• Small body
• arm bone to leg bone ratio, baboon like
• was likely to adapt in trees than modern humans
• stout long-bone shafts and arm-bone to thigh bone ratio
• are more in accord with a four legged walker
• orients the long axes of its limbs bone oblique to the force of gravity
• Skull
• Very small with a very small vertically face
• Forehead is relatively high
• The cast of LB1 skull shows a very small brain
• Brain volume of 380cc comparable to living chimpanzees and below to
gorillas
• Tooth suggest wide range of foods like vertebrates, fruits, seeds,
tubers, and herbs
• Lower premolars
• Elongated and have double roots
• Upper premolars
• Correspondingly unique shape
• Both upper and lower rows are relatively narrow and the front teeth small
• Given its small body size insects may have provided a greater
percentage of the diet that large extinct hominids
• Homo floresiensis species isn’t a separate species at all,
but instead belonged to a group of modern humans
whose size was restricted because they had a disease
• Microcephaly
• An abnormally small head due to failure of brain growth
Island dwarfism- process that results from long-term
isolation on a small island with limited food resources and
lack of predators.
• Remains found were not
that of a new species at
all.
• Ancestors of modern human
pygmies who live on island
currently
• The features in LB1’s
cranium previously said to
be diagnostic of a new
species are still found in
the Rampasasa pygmies
on the island today.
For Macs: NOVA scienceNOW : 6 - Little people of flores
• "Claim of 'Hobbit' Species Discounted." LiveScience.com. LiveScience Staff, 21 Aug. 2006. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.livescience.com/992-claim-hobbit-species-discounted.html>.
• Ghosh, Pallab. "Study Backs 'hobbit' Island Dwarfism Theory." BBC News. BBC, 17 Apr. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22166736>.
• Malory, Marcia. "Homo floresiensis – The Hobbit." Earth Facts. N.p., 18 Decem 2009. Web. 16 Oct 2013. <http://www.earthfacts.com/evolution/homofloresiensishobbit/>.
• "Microcephaly Definition - Medical Dictionary Definitions of Popular Medical Terms Easily Defined on MedTerms." Medterms. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. h
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4373>.
• Morwood, Mike J. , and Oosterzee Penny Van. A New Human. New York (N. Y.): Smithsonian /Collins, 2007. Print.
• NOVA ScienceNOW : 6 - Little People of Flores. YouTube. YouTube, 23 July 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMBlG-BaOEs>.
• Photograph. Website. 20 Oct. 2013. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iq2vQY1Jeaw/TG1iuWhkBjI/AAAAAAAAVe8/Z83qN0NQ9dg/s1600/ ebugogo3.jpg
• Sawyer, G. J., Viktor Deak, Esteban Sarmiento, Richard Milner, Donald C. Johanson, MeaveLeakey, and Ian Tattersall. The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-two Species of Extinct Humans. New Haven: Yale UP, 2007. Print.
• “Villager Speak of the Small, Hairy Ebu Gogo.” Thetelegraph.com.uk. The Telegraph, 28 Oct. 2004. Web. 20 Oct. 2013
• Wen-M “Ebu Gogo.” Photograph. Website. Deviant Art. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. http://wen-m.deviantart.com/art/Day-3-EbuGogo-364413974