Scientists have revealed what the ancient "hobbits" looked like (7 photos)

If you thought hobbits only lived in the universe "Lord of the Rings" is not. Recently, scientists have discovered for the first time how looked like a "real hobbit". Undersized skeleton of an ancient species under Homo floresiensis was found in a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia.





This unique discovery was made by a team of specialists from Brazil. For the first time the remains of the species Homo floresiensis were discovered in 2003 year, in a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia. The team designed digital model of the skull of this ancient man, and restored his face, using data obtained both from modern people and from chimpanzee. Brazilian graphics expert Cicero Moraes, co-author research, described the difference between Homo floresiensis and modern man.

"Homo floresiensis had a less protruding nose than modern men, and the mouth area, on the contrary, protruded more forward. Their brain size was much smaller. Since the growth of Homo floresiensis was estimated at 1.06 meters, the nickname "The Hobbit" was perfect for him, "- Moraes said.



To create these "hobbit" images, specialists did a whole job. They did two CT scans: one in in humans, the other in chimpanzees. Then they adapted the obtained data tomography to the skull structure of Homo floresiensis, and obtained an idea of what the face looked like. This is the first time in science when the face of an ancient person was reconstructed using data both humans and chimpanzees. With the previous reconstruction in 2015 only chimpanzee data were used.



At the time when the experts found the skeleton, it was believed that this Homo floresiensis was less than 20,000 years old. However, it is now believed that the skeleton is 60,000 years old.

"It was a very large-scale work, but we are happy to do first steps. The result satisfied us: we got a face where elements of the faces of both modern men and our evolutionary ancestors," the scientist continued.