Not the Tolkien ones. You've definitely heard of those.

不是托爾金的那些。你肯定聽說過。

I'm talking about Homo floresiensis, the famously tiny hominin species from Indonesia.

我說的是印度尼西亞的小個子智人（Homo floresiensis）。

Our short-statured cousins lived on the island of Flores and only went extinct around 50,000 years ago, which is not that long.

我們身材矮小的表親生活在弗洛勒斯島，大約在 5 萬年前才滅絕，時間並不長。

But even though we've been talking about Homo floresiensis for more than a decade here at SciShow, there are still a lot of unknowns about these guys.

但是，儘管我們在科學秀上討論浮游智人已經有十多年了，關於這些傢伙的未知數仍然很多。

And probably the biggest is also the littlest.

最大的可能也是最小的。

Why were they so small?

它們為什麼這麼小？

Well, here's the long and short of it.

長話短說吧。

[♪ INTRO ♪)]

[♪ INTRO ♪)]

The first Homo floresiensis specimen was found in September 2003 in the Liangboa cave on Flores.

2003 年 9 月，在弗洛勒斯島的梁波亞洞穴中發現了第一個弗洛里斯人標本。

And I was very excited.

我非常激動。

I was 23 and I read a lot of science news.

我當時 23 歲，讀了很多科學新聞。

It was a mostly complete skeleton from a roughly 30-year-old female dubbed LB1.

這是一具基本完整的骨骼，來自一名大約 30 歲的女性，被稱為 LB1。

And even though she was an adult, she was just a little over a meter tall, or about the size of a modern four-year-old.

雖然她已經成年，但身高只有一米多一點，和現代的四歲小孩差不多大。

Hence the hobbit nickname.

這就是霍比特人綽號的由來。

She was originally estimated to be about 18,000 years old, but newer evidence has pushed that back to around 60,000 years.

據最初估計，她的年齡約為 1.8 萬年，但最新的證據將這一年齡推後到 6 萬年左右。

And her skull was proportional to the rest of her body, which meant her body and brain volume were basically the size of a chimp.

她的頭骨與身體其他部分成比例，這意味著她的身體和腦容量基本上與黑猩猩一樣大。

This was surprising for a number of reasons.

令人驚訝的原因有很多。

For one thing, her size and brain volume were also similar to australopiths, who lived more than 3 million years ago.

首先，她的體型和腦容量也與 300 多萬年前的澳洲石人相似。

But australopiths went extinct more than a million years ago, and as far as we knew, they never left Africa.

但是，澳洲石器在一百萬年前就已經滅絕，而且據我們所知，它們從未離開過非洲。

For another thing, the remains were associated with stone tools and evidence of fire and cooking big game.

另外，這些遺骸與石器以及生火和烹飪大型野味的證據有關。

Someone with such a small brain doing such technologically advanced things didn't really jive with the way we thought about intelligence.

一個腦容量如此小的人卻能做出如此先進的技術，這與我們對智能的理解並不相符。

Which is part of why there was a ton of drama surrounding these hobbits pretty much from the second their discovery was announced.

這也是為什麼從宣佈發現霍比特人的那一刻起，圍繞著他們的戲劇性事件就層出不窮。

And boy, was it spicy!

好傢伙，還真辣！

With only one skull, some anthropologists didn't believe that this was a valid species, and said that LB1 was probably just a member of another homospecies with some sort of pathology.

由於只有一個頭骨，一些人類學家並不認為這是一個有效的物種，他們認為 LB1 很可能只是另一個同種生物中的一個成員，而且有某種病態。

Something wrong with her.

她有點不對勁

So rather than the species being chimpsized with chimpsized brains, we just happened to find one individual who was that small.

是以，與其說這個物種的大腦和猩猩一樣小，不如說我們只是碰巧發現了一個這麼小的個體。

Microencephaly, dwarfism, Down syndrome, Lerone syndrome, and different combinations of these have all been proposed for why LB1 was as small as she appeared to be.

小腦畸形、侏儒症、唐氏綜合症、萊隆綜合症，以及這些病症的不同組合，都曾被提出來解釋為什麼雷鋒 1 看起來那麼小。

Meanwhile, the researchers who found it were adamant that this individual wasn't pathological at all and represented a brand new species.

同時，發現它的研究人員堅持認為，這個個體根本不是病態的，而是一個全新的物種。

Papers were flying back and forth, and they did not hold back on the academic shade.

來來回回的論文滿天飛，他們也沒有在學術上遮遮掩掩。

One group went as far as calling another group's work research.

一個小組甚至稱另一個小組的工作為研究。

Like, in quotation marks.

比如，用引號。

This is like the academic equivalent of slapping someone in the face with your glove.

這在學術上就相當於用手套扇別人耳光。

Like, it was going down.

就像，它正在下降。

The specimens were then sent to a university in Indonesia for further study under a different researcher, not by the team that made the original discovery.

隨後，這些標本被送往印度尼西亞的一所大學，由不同的研究人員進行進一步研究，而不是由最初發現標本的小組進行研究。

And this new researcher happened to be firmly on the side of everyone saying that LB1 was pathological.

而這位新研究員恰好堅定地站在所有人一邊，認為雷曼兄弟1號是病態的。

This researcher would only let other researchers who were also on team pathology examine the fossils, essentially limiting research to just the stuff that would confirm what he already believed.

這位研究員只讓同在病理學小組的其他研究員檢查化石，基本上把研究侷限於那些能證實他已經相信的東西。

Even worse, when the bones were eventually returned, they were damaged.

更糟糕的是，當骨頭最終被送回時，它們已經損壞。

Some people think the damage happened during transit between locations, but others accused the researcher who had them of causing the damage directly due to poor research practices.

一些人認為，損壞是在不同地點之間的運輸過程中發生的，但也有人指責，擁有它們的研究人員由於研究方法不當而直接造成了損壞。

The tea was piping hot, and I, for one, demand a Netflix documentary about this immediately.

茶水冒著熱氣，而我則要求 Netflix 立即製作一部關於此事的紀錄片。

But as these things tend to go, time marched forward, and more evidence came to light.

但是，隨著時間的推移，越來越多的證據浮出水面。

In this case, LB1's humerus was discovered in 2004, and it was confirmed that this individual was indeed generally tiny, so it was not a case of microencephaly.

在這個病例中，LB1 的肱骨是在 2004 年發現的，經確認，這個個體確實普遍較小，是以不是小兒腦癱。

They also discovered a second jaw and more body parts from eight other individuals.

他們還發現了第二個下顎和其他八個人的更多身體部位。

And all of this pointed to the whole species being tiny, not just LB1.

所有這一切都表明，整個物種都是渺小的，而不僅僅是 LB1。

And since then, discoveries of even more individuals have strengthened the argument.

此後，更多個體的發現加強了這一論點。

Adding yet another layer of support for team tiny species, researchers have discovered remains from at least three different individuals of another small hominin species from around the same time period in the Philippines.

研究人員在菲律賓發現了大約同一時期另一種小型類人猿的至少三個不同個體的遺骸，這為該團隊中的小型物種提供了又一支持。

This new species is called Homo luzonensis, and while we're pretty sure they were pretty tiny, we can't say for sure exactly what size they were because of how fragmented the specimens are.

這個新物種被稱為呂宋智人（Homo luzonensis），雖然我們可以肯定它們非常小，但由於標本非常殘缺，我們無法確定它們的具體大小。

And we don't have any of their skulls, so we can't say anything about their brain volume.

我們也沒有他們的頭骨，所以我們無法得知他們的腦容量。

But still, it's evidence of another short homo species living in Asia around the same time.

但是，這仍然是另一種矮小的同類在同一時期生活在亞洲的證據。

So assuming that Homo floresiensis as a species were really that little, there are really two different hypotheses for why.

是以，假設浮游智人作為一個物種真的那麼小，那麼對於其原因確實有兩種不同的假設。

One idea is that at some point, a bunch of small hominins landed on Flores and made it their home.

一種觀點認為，在某一時刻，一群小型類人猿登陸了弗洛裡斯島，並以這裡為家。

The other idea is that it was a bigger species that came to the island, and then, over time, they shrunk.

另一種觀點認為，來到島上的是一個更大的物種，然後隨著時間的推移，它們縮小了。

In other words, were they always small, or did something make them small?

換句話說，是它們一直很小，還是什麼東西讓它們變小了？

Not like a curse or something, like evolutionarily.

不像是詛咒什麼的，像是進化。

That question of why they are so small would be easy to answer if we knew how big their ancestors were.

如果我們知道它們的祖先有多大，就不難回答它們為什麼這麼小的問題了。

But that requires knowing who their ancestors were.

但這需要知道他們的祖先是誰。

And we don't know that!

而我們並不知道！

Homo floresiensis's size is not the only unusual thing about them.

浮游智人的體型並不是他們唯一不同尋常的地方。

They also have a weird mix of modern and archaic features.

它們還奇怪地混合了現代和古老的特徵。

Their skull and face shape is pretty similar to Homo erectus, just smaller.

他們的頭骨和臉型與直立人非常相似，只是個頭小一些。

But their hands, feet, and shoulders look more like much, much older species.

但它們的手、腳和肩膀看起來更像更古老的物種。

And so, it is possible that their ancestors were Homo erectus, and then they went through an evolutionary process called insular dwarfism.

是以，他們的祖先有可能是直立人，然後他們經歷了一個進化過程，叫做島狀侏儒症。

Insular dwarfism is a fairly common phenomenon where species shrink when they are isolated on islands because of limited access to resources.

島嶼侏儒症是一種相當常見的現象，當物種被孤立在島嶼上時，由於獲取資源的途徑有限，它們的數量就會減少。

In fact, our floresien friends have been found with Stegodon florensis, a species of elephant that's only about 70% of the size and 30% of the weight of their mainland ancestors.

事實上，我們的弗洛里斯蘭朋友已經發現了弗洛里斯蘭象（Stegodon florensis），這種大象的體型只有它們大陸祖先的 70%，體重只有它們大陸祖先的 30%。

But this process often results in the smaller animals having juvenile characteristics like size while still having larger heads, which these fossils do not.

但這一過程往往會導致較小的動物具有幼年特徵，如體型較大，但頭部仍然較大，而這些化石卻沒有。

So it could be that Homo floresiensis descended from an ancient population of hominins that got to Asia before Homo erectus did, possibly some relative of Homo habilis or even an australopith.

是以，浮游智人可能是先於直立人到達亞洲的古人類的後裔，可能是哈比人的某個親戚，甚至是澳大利亞人。

Which would turn a lot of what we thought we knew on its head.

這將顛覆我們的許多認知。

Like, all of the evidence we have says that Homo erectus was the first species to reach Asia about 1.6 million years ago.

比如，我們掌握的所有證據都表明，直立人是大約 160 萬年前第一個到達亞洲的物種。

So if Homo floresiensis has descended from something older than Homo erectus, that would suggest there was an even earlier migration of hominins out of Africa.

是以，如果浮游智人的後裔比直立智人更早，那就表明有更早的智人從非洲遷出。

And archaeologists have actually hypothesized that it was Homo erectus's long legs that made it possible for them to even reach Asia, because having long legs allowed them to cover more ground and spread out geographically.

事實上，考古學家曾假設，正是直立人的長腿使他們甚至有可能到達亞洲，因為長腿使他們能夠覆蓋更多的地面，在地理上更加分散。

Unfortunately, the fossil record just hasn't given us enough to work with to say with any certainty.

不幸的是，化石記錄並沒有給我們提供足夠的證據，讓我們無法做出肯定的判斷。

We have remains from Homo erectus from around a million years ago, about 1,200 kilometers away on the island of Java.

我們有大約一百萬年前直立人的遺骸，在大約 1200 公里外的爪哇島上。

But they're not little, and there's not much evidence to tie them directly to the hobbits.

但它們並不小，也沒有太多證據可以將它們與霍比特人直接聯繫起來。

But while the Homo floresiensis fossils themselves date to around 60,000 years ago, we've also found stone tools there that have been dated as far back as 190,000 years.

不過，雖然浮游智人化石本身可追溯到距今約 6 萬年前，但我們還在那裡發現了石器，其年代最早可追溯到 19 萬年前。

And someone had to have made them, so we can say that someone had to have been living on that island 190,000 years ago.

而且一定有人制造過它們，是以我們可以說，19 萬年前一定有人生活在那個島上。

But between Homo erectus on Java and tools on Flores, there are 800,000 years of question marks.

但是，從爪哇島上的直立人到弗洛勒斯島上的工具，這中間有 80 萬年的問號。

And the only way to fill those gaps is with more fossils.

而填補這些空白的唯一方法就是更多的化石。

But first, a quick break.

不過，先休息一下。

This SciShow video is supported by Brilliant, an online learning platform with thousands of lessons in computer science, math, and science.

本 SciShow 視頻由 Brilliant 支持，Brilliant 是一個在線學習平臺，提供數千節計算機科學、數學和科學課程。

They make it fun to learn about the stuff you interact with every day, like programming and AI.

他們讓您在學習編程和人工智能等日常互動內容的過程中感受到樂趣。

These days, unless you change your settings, every time you search for something online, the first result is an AI answer.

如今，除非你更改設置，否則每次上網搜索，第一個結果就是人工智能的答案。

So if you want to understand how much stock to put in those search results and where they come from, you need to understand AI and the programming that created it from the ground up.

是以，如果你想了解這些搜索結果的可信度以及它們的來源，你就需要了解人工智能以及從頭開始創建人工智能的程序。

And you can do that with Brilliant.

你可以通過 Brilliant 做到這一點。

You can get started today at Brilliant.org slash SciShow, the QR code, or the link in the description.

您可以從 Brilliant.org slash SciShow、二維碼或描述中的鏈接開始。

That link gives you 20% off an annual premium Brilliant subscription.

通過該鏈接訂購 Brilliant 年度高級版可享受八折優惠。

And go ahead and take the first 30 days for free.

前 30 天免費。

About needing more fossils, I have some good news.

關於需要更多化石的問題，我有一個好消息。

In 2016, a team of researchers announced that they had found much, much older remains in a different cave on Flores called Matamenge.

2016 年，一個研究小組宣佈，他們在弗洛勒斯島另一個名為馬塔門格（Matamenge）的洞穴中發現了更古老的遺骸。

They found teeth and a jawbone that dated to 700,000 years ago.

他們發現了距今 70 萬年前的牙齒和下頜骨。

The jawbone was tiny, even tinier than the remains from the Liangboa cave.

下顎骨很小，甚至比梁波洞的遺骸還要小。

But the jaw definitely came from an adult, because their wisdom teeth had already erupted.

但下巴肯定來自成年人，因為他們的智齒已經萌出。

Plus, it has a similar shape to a Homo erectus jaw, which meant that there was an even clearer link between Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis.

此外，它的形狀與直立人的下顎相似，這意味著直立人和弗洛里斯人之間的聯繫更加明顯。

Which is exciting.

這是令人興奮的。

But there's only so much you can tell from a jaw and a couple of teeth.

不過，從下巴和幾顆牙齒上也只能看出這麼多。

So while more data is always good, we still don't know anything about their body or brain sizes and shapes, or how they relate to erectus and floresiensis and any other potential ancestors.

是以，雖然更多的數據總是好的，但我們仍然對他們的身體或大腦的大小和形狀一無所知，也不知道他們與直立人、弗洛勒斯人和其他潛在祖先的關係。

Then, in 2024, the team announced that they had found more fossils in the cave, this time an arm bone, specifically a humerus.

2024 年，研究小組宣佈他們在洞穴中發現了更多化石，這次是一塊臂骨，特別是肱骨。

This humerus is definitely from an adult, and it is between 9 and 16 percent smaller than the one belonging to LB1.

這根肱骨肯定來自一個成年人，它比屬於 LB1 的那根小 9% 到 16%。

It has a shape more similar to Homo erectus than any of the australopiths.

它的外形與直立人更相似，而不是任何一種澳洲古人類。

And the teeth that they found are also way more similar to erectus than Homo habilis.

而且他們發現的牙齒與直立人的相似程度也遠遠超過了哈比人。

The similarities to Homo erectus means that these finds support the idea that not only were Homo floresiensis not pathological, they are likely descendants of Homo erectus that ended up on the island and shrank down between a million and 700,000 years ago.

與直立人的相似性意味著，這些發現支持了這樣一種觀點，即弗洛裡斯島人不僅不是病態的，而且很可能是直立人的後裔，他們在 100 萬年至 70 萬年前落腳於該島並縮小了身體。

But there are still a lot of questions.

但問題仍然很多。

After all, we only have one skull, so we can only really confirm that the whole species' bodies and jaws were small, and we can't really say anything about their brain volume.

畢竟，我們只有一個頭骨，所以我們只能真正確認整個物種的身體和下頜都很小，而對於它們的腦容量，我們還真說不上來。

And it's possible that the Matamangue specimens aren't actually the ancestors of the Liangboa specimens.

而且，馬塔芒格標本有可能實際上並不是梁波亞標本的祖先。

We don't have anything that directly connects the two caves, and 600,000 years leaves a lot unaccounted for.

我們沒有任何東西可以直接將這兩個洞穴聯繫起來，60 萬年的時間留下了很多未知數。

But these new fossils fill in some major gaps, which could someday help us completely solve the mystery of our mini-cousins.

但是，這些新化石填補了一些重大空白，有朝一日可能會幫助我們徹底揭開我們迷你表親的神祕面紗。

So when it comes to hobbits, we have a lot more information than we did back in 2003 when I first got excited about this.

是以，說到哈比人，我們掌握的資訊比 2003 年我第一次對此感到興奮時要多得多。

But there is still a lot more to dig into.

但是，還有很多東西需要挖掘。

[♪ OUTRO ♪, thanks for watching!]

[OUTRO，感謝您的收看！]