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Frodo, is that you? Face of a ‘real HOBBIT’ who lived in Indonesia 60,000 years ago is revealed for the first time
- Homo floresiensis is an extinct species of human nicknamed ‘Hobbit’
- Using a skull, researchers have reconstructed the species’ face for the first time
When you think of Hobbits, you might think of a vision of Bilbo or Frodo Baggins.
But Hobbits were once very real, in the form of an ancient species called Homo floresiensis.
Homo floresiensis was discovered in 2003, when its skeleton was found in a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia.
Now equipped with a digital model of the skull, a multinational team has rebuilt the skeleton’s face using data from both modern humans and chimpanzees.
Brazilian graphics expert Cicero Moraes, who co-authored the new study, described some of the differences between the species and humans today.
Homo floresiensis – an extinct human species nicknamed ‘Hobbit’ – was discovered in 2003, when his skeleton was found in a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia
Equipped with a digital model of the skull, a multinational team rebuilt the skeleton’s face using data from both modern humans and chimpanzees
He said: ‘Grossly speaking, they probably had a less protruding nose than modern men, the mouth region was slightly more projected than ours and the brain volume was considerably smaller.’
They were also much shorter.
Mr Moraes said: ‘When the skull was presented to the public in 2004, the Lord of the Rings film was a huge success.
“Since the height of Homo floresiensis is estimated to be 1.06 meters, the nickname ‘Hobbit’ was a perfect fit.”
When rebuilding a human face from a skull, scientists typically use data from living people to determine how thick the tissue should be in a particular place.
But reconstructing the face of an extinct human species required a new approach.
Cicero said: ‘In this work we did not use this approach, because such markers are based on human data and not on individuals belonging to the Homo floresiensis group.
‘So what we did was we took two CT scans, one of a human, the other of a chimpanzee.
“We then deformed both to match the structure of Homo floresiensis’s skull, and interpolated the data to get an idea of what its face might look like.”
It’s the first time the ‘Hobbit’ face has been rebuilt using data from both humans and chimpanzees.
An earlier 2015 reconstruction used only the latter.
The result is a face that is more human in its aspect.
It’s the first time the ‘Hobbit’ face has been rebuilt using data from both humans and chimpanzees
When rebuilding a human face from a skull, scientists typically use data from living people to determine how thick the tissue should be in a particular place
Mr Moraes said: ‘It was more work, but we were also very happy to continue with this challenging work.
“The result was quite satisfying, revealing a face with elements that remind us of both modern humans and our evolutionary ancestors.”
When discovered, Homo floresiensis was thought to be less than 20,000 years old, but the skeleton is now believed to be 60,000 years old.
Cicero and his colleagues, Italian archaeologists Luca and Alessandro Bezzi, will publish their study in the 3D computer graphics magazine OrtogOnLineMag.
When discovered, Homo floresiensis was thought to be less than 20,000 years old, but the skeleton is now believed to be 60,000 years old