Les scientifiques pensent que des hobbits—oui, des hobbits réels—peuvent encore errer sur une île indonésienne ! Il ne s'agit pas de ceux du Seigneur des anneaux, mais d'une espèce humaine minuscule appelée Homo floresiensis, surnommée "hobbits" en raison de leur petite taille. On pensait qu'ils avaient disparu il y a environ 50 000 ans, mais certains chercheurs croient qu'ils pourraient encore se cacher au plus profond des forêts de l'île de Flores. Les habitants ont transmis des histoires de génération en génération sur des créatures petites et semblables à des humains vivant dans des zones reculées, évitant le contact avec les gens. Ces contes pourraient-ils être vrais ? Si c'est le cas, ce serait l'une des plus grandes découvertes de l'histoire—la preuve qu'une autre espèce humaine marche encore parmi nous ! Animation créée par Sympa. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Musique par Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com
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00:00It could well be that Hobbits exist in real life, but these little beings do not live in round houses and huts built in the hills, like in the Lord of the Rings.
00:10They are most likely on an isolated island in Indonesia, climbing mountains and hiding in dense forests.
00:17But wait, are they even human beings?
00:20Well, the place we are talking about is the island of Flores, a heavenly place in the Indian Ocean.
00:27Today, it is famous for sheltering the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard in the world.
00:34But in the past, it also sheltered a very small human species known as Homo floresiensis.
00:42In 2003, experts excavated the Liang Bua cave and discovered more than a hundred fossils of this species.
00:49This discovery was enormous, because it completely questioned our understanding of the history of humanity.
00:56In the past, most experts thought that Homo sapiens, that is, our species, was the only one to have managed to travel beyond Southeast Asia to New Guinea and Australia.
01:08But if this is true, how did these ancestors end up on the island of Flores?
01:13Before you answer by boat, let me tell you that it is very unlikely that an ancient human species was able to create sufficiently solid and large boats to cross the ocean.
01:23Maybe they swam to the island? Or did they teleport?
01:27Joke aside, the truth is that we still do not know exactly how or when Homo floresiensis arrived there.
01:33A recent study suggests that it could descend from Homo erectus, one of the first known humanoid species.
01:40According to this theory, they would probably have traveled 724 km east from Java Island and would have landed in Flores about a million years ago.
01:51Living isolated on this island, their body would have shrunk over the years and they would have ended up becoming very small.
01:57But this is just a theory, and we do not yet have a lot of solid evidence to support it.
02:02What we can affirm with certainty is that they were really small compared to modern humans.
02:08At first, we thought they measured about 105 cm.
02:12But that changed in 2016, when experts discovered new fossils, including a tiny bone of the arm and a few teeth, which revealed that they were even smaller.
02:22About 6.4 cm less, to be exact.
02:26These Hobbits also had a very small skull and a tiny brain, about a third the size of ours.
02:34They had wide hips and shoulders, short legs and big flat feet.
02:39Overall, their bones were so small that, at first, experts thought they might belong to children.
02:47But no, as they had wisdom teeth, it was clear that they were adult skeletons.
02:52But very small adults.
02:54Because of their tiny and curious appearance, the media began to call this ancient species the Hobbit of real life.
03:02Just like the characters created by J.R.R. Tolkien, you know, the Lord of the Rings, Frodo, Saké...
03:08Anyway, why were they so small?
03:11There are two main theories.
03:13The first, they did not belong at all to a different species from ours.
03:17Some experts think it could be Homo sapiens like you and me, but with a disease causing a smaller brain development, a bit like microcephaly.
03:27However, many experts have rejected this idea, because the anatomy of people affected by this type of disease does not correspond to what we have observed in the little men of Flores.
03:38Let's move on.
03:39The second theory is what is called insular nanism.
03:43Basically, when large animals live on isolated islands, they tend to raptize because food supply is limited.
03:51For example, there is this dwarf elephant that lived in Sicily and Malta a very long time ago, and it only measured about 1 meter.
03:59Its parent on the European continent measured, him, about 4 meters.
04:04With a smaller body, these animals need less food, which means they have more chances of surviving on an island.
04:12Another factor that leads to this type of nanism is the absence of large predators.
04:18Indeed, if you find yourself on an isolated island without lions or tigers to threaten you, you don't really need to be huge.
04:25So maybe that's what happened to these Hobbits.
04:29Studies show that they lived in Indonesia at least 100,000 years ago, and up to about 50,000 years.
04:35But after surviving for so long, these small people mysteriously disappeared.
04:42It is possible that they disappeared after the 8 massive volcanic eruptions that occurred in this region.
04:48This idea came about after researchers discovered a thick layer of volcanic ash just above where the fossils had been discovered.
04:57But even with this evidence, no one can say with certainty that the eruptions are the cause of their disappearance.
05:04And recently, an anthropologist questioned this theory by saying that they could still be alive today.
05:10Uh, excuse me?
05:12It sounds crazy, but this anthropologist has stated that he has spoken to dozens of inhabitants who think they have seen a small man resembling a Hobbit of flesh and bones on the isolated island of Flores.
05:23In fact, stories of this kind already circulated long before the remains of the Homo floresiensis were discovered.
05:31It is therefore not a story invented following the discovery of the fossils.
05:35At least 30 people living there claim to have seen with their own eyes a creature halfway between a monkey and a human.
05:43It had a monkey face and was much smaller and more slender than a person.
05:48However, it walked perfectly standing, both feet on the ground, like a human.
05:54The inhabitants called it the Lai Hoa.
05:57But how should we call it?
05:59Could this creature be our famous Homo floresiensis?
06:03Maybe.
06:04Anthropologist Gregory Forth has been working on the island of Flores since the 1980s
06:10and claims that the descriptions of the inhabitants strangely resemble the idea that we are made of these ancient little men.
06:17You may think that the Lai Hoa is just a legend, a story of campfire intended to frighten people.
06:24And yes, some of the descriptions really seem to go against fundamental science.
06:29Some people say that after seeing the creature, it flew away or disappeared as if by magic.
06:35But the researcher emphasizes that many inhabitants have given very detailed physical descriptions of the creature.
06:42Of course, the details vary a bit, which is quite common when different people witness the same thing.
06:48But their descriptions do not mention any superpowers.
06:53Now, Forth begins to wonder if we are really the only human species left on the planet.
06:59It could actually be Hobbits.
07:02And that brings us back to a question asked earlier in this video.
07:05Are they humans?
07:07Maybe yes, maybe no.
07:10It is possible that the creature seen on the island of Flores actually belongs to a population of isolated modern humans.
07:17But it could also be a kind of unknown monkey.
07:21However, as we have no proof for either of these hypotheses,
07:26the best assumption for the moment is that a creature similar to a monkey man is living in this region.
07:34Well, but if this creature shares the planet with us, how come no one has ever taken a picture of it?
07:40Well, the monkey man is part of this island, just like other rare creatures, like Komodo dragons.
07:47And unlike those who believe in Bigfoot, the inhabitants are probably not actively looking for this creature.
07:53According to the anthropologist, they have no financial, social or other reason to find a monkey man.
08:00And since most of them are not aware of the scientific research or theories according to which these creatures do not exist,
08:06they do not really care to try to prove that the scientific world is wrong.
08:11Forth finished his research in 2018.
08:14But the anthropologist states that since then, other people have seen the strange creature walking on the island of Flores.
08:21Two young British men went there, mainly to dive.
08:26But at one point, they climbed a mountain and saw something that looked like a monkey man.
08:32So who knows, maybe you will also have the chance to see the real Hobbit during your next trip to Indonesia.
