All language subtitles for Human.2025.S01E02.Into.the.Unknown.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

Over 300,000 years ago,

Africa was the cradle of humanity -

the place where humans evolved,

including the first
of a new species...

..Homo sapiens...

..our species.

From humble beginnings,
our growing culture

and connections helped us spread
across that great continent.

And then we ventured outwards,

away from our home,
and into the wider world.

Our ancestors did something
which is actually remarkable.

From a beach not unlike this one,

possibly quite close by,

they ventured out
into an open ocean,

with only an empty horizon
in front of them.

And after many days
and nights on the water,

they eventually came upon this
new landmass that they would settle.

We call that landmass Australia.

It was a pivotal moment
in the history of our species.

But in so many ways,
it's not actually the destination

that's important.

It is everything it took -

all the challenges
they had to overcome

to make it so far away
from where they began, in Africa.

We were not the first humans
to leave Africa.

Long before we evolved,

the ancestors of our cousins,

the Neanderthals, set out.

And Homo erectus,
one of the most ancient humans,

had made it deep into Asia.

But none had ever made
the voyage to Australia.

Every other species of human reached
a point, and then they just stopped.

They faced a barrier that they
either could not or would not pass.

But not us.

This is the story
of how, time and again,

we took on perilous journeys -

how the last species
of human to evolve

took on environments
like no others had,

to become the only global species
of human.

That title is ours and ours alone.

This story begins
over 120,000 years ago.

As our species spreads
beyond the borders of Africa...

..they're blocked by expanses
of oceans on most sides.

One of the few places
they can go is east -

to the vast landmass that today
is made up of

Arabia and the Levant...

..at this time one of the few
gateways out of Africa

to the rest of the world.

Of all the species of human
that have ever existed,

I think we, Homo sapiens,

are the explorer species.

We can't help it -
we have to wander.

It is in our wont to travel.

And this place
was the landmass next door.

You could see it from Africa.

And look at it!
It is absolutely breathtaking.

But it's not exactly welcoming.

Nothing about this place says home.

And so, the question is,

why did Homo sapiens come here?

We know they did,

thanks to finds from Israel
and Saudi Arabia,

to the Gulf States.

And even beyond - to the fringes
of Europe and Asia.

Which is hard to explain,

when today these lands look just
as much of a barrier as any ocean.

I always say archaeology
is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle,

and you're just constantly
looking for pieces of that puzzle

to help you get the full picture.

And this is one of those pieces.

This particular piece is

a copy of a tooth.

Now, it's a single tooth,
which gives you an idea

of how large this animal
must have been,

because it's bigger
than a brick. It's...

I mean, it's practically
the size of my head.

It is the tooth
of an extinct elephant,

and it was found in Jordan.

And we also have hippo fossils

from the Saudi desert.

Now, hippos and elephants

do not belong in this landscape.

Look around!

Where's the water?

Hippos actually need
standing bodies of water,

and they need greenery.

And that's the thing
about some fossils.

They tell us about
what a landscape used to look like.

Because these do not belong here.

These finds point
to a very different Arabia.

One that, if you know where to look,

you can see hints of to this day.

If you look over there,
it almost looks like a mirage -

that white and silver
on the landscape.

So that used to be a lake,

and the white and silver
is actually salt and gypsum

that was left behind
when the water evaporated.

And scientists are really interested
in not just ageing them,

but also working out
these ancient water systems -

these extinct water systems.

And so one of the ways they do this
is by just getting on the ground

and walking these beautiful
but incredibly intense landscapes,

looking at maps,
looking at satellite images.

And this is the result
of some of that work.

Now, if you look here,

this is a map of the region

just slightly north of here.

So this is Saudi,
which is to our east,

and that there
is the Sinai of Egypt.

You can see it's basically shades
of beige and grey.

Now, look!

So this is about 125,000 years ago.

Water litters this landscape.

I mean, you can see the veins
just running through.

There is no way that this land

would not have been green.

There are paleo lakes and
paleo rivers absolutely everywhere.

And this is this region
as we have never known it.

Now, remember,
this was a world without borders,

and this was a land of plenty,

within easy reach.

And so why wouldn't
Homo sapiens have come here?

But what they didn't know,

what they couldn't have known,

is that this region would be a trap.

The green days of Arabia
were numbered.

The desert was on the march.

Subtle variations
in the orbit of the Earth

caused the climate to change.

Within as little as a few hundred
years, the rains vanished,

starving this entire region
of water...

..leaving humans
at the mercy of the desert.

If you set out to create
an environment that was completely

and utterly hostile to our biology,

you'd come up with this.

The heat is such a presence

that I can feel it on my back.

The sun,
even at this time of the morning,

feels like it's borderline torture.

And there is no water.

As far as the eye can see,
there's nothing.

And back then,
it would've been so much worse.

It wasn't arid.

It's what we call hyper arid.

It's thought that there was
no rainfall for years on end.

And so we go from seeing
multiple sites

where humans lived in this region,
to nothing.

We seem to vanish
for thousands of years.

And this could so easily
have been the end of our journey...

..defeated by the harsh desert.

We think that some Homo sapiens

clung on in pockets
that we call refugia.

Those are refuges
where the climate is milder.

But from all we can tell,

they would've been
few and far between,

and they effectively faded away.

And so, for all intents
and purposes,

Homo sapiens outside of Africa
had failed.

And what's interesting is

other species of human had cracked

the code of living
outside of Africa, but not us.

And so how did this happen?

People like me, so many of you,

how did we become
the only species of human

who exists across the globe?

These brutal conditions

persisted for years on end.

Until finally, there was
another subtle change in climate...

..allowing conditions
to become less extreme...

..and giving Homo sapiens
another chance.

Occasional seasonal rains
returned...

..just enough to bring precious
water back to the desert.

Now, the conditions here
did get better.

So, yes, you had desert
and sand dunes...

..but you also had lakes and rivers.

And that resulted in us
being able to exist in this place,

but not just exist here.

From an oasis here to a river
and spring system there,

we were able to actually leave
the Arabian Peninsula

and face the rest of the world.

As they did, these new waves
likely absorbed any small pockets

of Homo sapiens that had held on.

And now scientists studying
the genetic code

of people alive today
believe this moment

was a pivotal point in our history.

Our DNA has the power
to tell stories about us,

but some of them aren't just
stories, they're sagas,

and they're extraordinary.

And one of them is that
every single one of us

whose origins are from
outside of Africa

comes from a tiny population
of Homo sapiens.

We started in Africa, from multiple
populations across the continent,

but then
only a small group of us left -

perhaps as few
as 10,000 individuals.

And so all of us
from outside of Africa

come from this minuscule population,

who went on to populate

not one, not two continents,
but five.

But our journey
through the desert...

..was only one of a multitude
of challenges

Homo sapiens would face

as we spread across the globe.

And because we were
so few in number,

our very survival outside of Africa

was far from certain.

As this tiny population
grew and spread...

..they would crash
into another extreme environment.

One that had defeated
all other species of human -

a vast green wall.

Once beyond the desert,

our species found themselves in the
giant landmass of Europe and Asia.

To their north,
lay high, cold mountains.

So many spread eastwards and south,

down through what is now
the Indian subcontinent,

reaching modern-day Sri Lanka,

at that time joined to the mainland

by lower sea levels...

..and dominated
by expansive dense rainforests.

And while this may look so much more
welcoming than the desert,

nothing could be further
from the truth.

These leeches
are absolutely everywhere.

And when I say everywhere,
I mean, one has just got me.

And there are creepy crawlies
absolutely everywhere,

including in our trousers.

And they are actually
quite irritating.

This place is also
full of mosquitoes.

We saw a viper, and a cobra.

And that's the thing
about this place.

It is difficult to exist in.

It's hot, it's humid,
it's oppressive,

and you have to constantly
have your wits about you.

This is one of the most extreme
environments on the planet.

So much of what grows here
is poisonous to eat...

..and there are few large animals
to provide meat.

Conditions so difficult

that, as far as we can tell,

no other species of human

ever made it past the fringes
of these rainforests.

Being here is a bit like
stepping back in time,

because about 50,000 years ago,

this place would have basically
looked the same.

This huge cave mouth
would've been here.

Only back then, the rainforest
would've been unbroken,

and it would've gone on
for kilometres

in every single direction.

And yet, somehow, in this cave

and two other caves not far away,

we have found evidence
of our ancestors living here,

all the way back then,

in the heart of what would've been
a massive rainforest.

So how were Homo sapiens able to
plunge into a place no others had?

How did they find food -
particularly meat?

They did have the advantage
of bow-and-arrow technology,

which had arisen
thousands of years earlier.

But heavy, stone-tipped arrows

were less suited to firing into
the high canopy of the rainforest.

Their solution was uncovered thanks
to over 30 years of excavations

deep into the floor of this -
and the two other two caves.

Digs that reach all the way back

to 48,000 years ago,

when the pioneers of our species

first attempted to overcome
the challenges of this rainforest.

Starting with one
of the most difficult -

how to find enough meat
to sustain them.

Yeah. So, this here,
that's where somebody is cutting?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's funny,
because I think butchery marks,

often need to look at it through
a magnifying glass, but not always.

And actually,
this one is quite clear.

And this is not the kind of thing
that you would see

if an animal killed it.

This is an indication
that this is killed by a human.

And so the question is
how they killed them.

Right.

So, that chip mark there...

- ..shows us that
it was actually used. - Yes.

I mean, it's amazing,
because this is obviously...

I've got in my hands right now

something that was used
48,000 years ago.

- Of course, of course.
- And it was absolutely revolutionary.

These bone points are only
the tips of the full arrowheads.

Many are chipped from actually
hitting prey...

..and each one would have been
attached to the end of a long wooden
arrow.

These hunters didn't invent
a brand-new technology...

..they adapted an old one.

These are some of the
earliest examples of bow

and arrows found outside of
Africa...

..enabling Homo sapiens to hunt

with exceptional skill and
efficiency within the forest.

But we know that the
humans living here

were doing more than
just surviving.

Oshan and the team also found
beads fashioned from shells.

Perhaps brought in through trade
from groups living on the coast.

A constant struggle to survive...

..doesn't leave much
time for making works of art..

..suggesting a long-established and
successful community existed here.

And for that, to turn this
place into a true home

would take something fundamental
to our species.

This is...

..a replica...

..of a tool that
was found in the caves

in this area,
dated from about 40,000 years ago.

It is a monkey tooth, specifically
a canine, but that's been modified.

If you look here,
it's been cut into,

to create a much sharper point.

And the reason for that...

..is that it's a tool
used for puncturing.

Oh.

It's not easy.

All right, look,
I've finally managed to make a hole.

And once you make a hole,
you can then use plant fibre,

animal sinew, as a string,
start stringing animal skins,

animal hide together,
and create clothes.

But actually, in so many ways,

that's not the most interesting
thing about this tool.

Because for me, the most interesting
thing is what this tells us

about the minds of the people
who have made it.

Because you have to be
taught how to use it.

You have to be taught how
to make it.

So it actually tells us
something much deeper.

Throughout the years humans made
this cave their home,

countless elder generations

would have taught children these
techniques.

Something we still do to this day.

A communal passing on of knowledge
that is key to our ability

to master so many different
environments.

That engagement,
constant engagement,

turns every generation of children

into a step in the evolution
of knowledge.

And for us Homo sapiens,
that's probably what adaptation is,

the evolution of knowledge,

because it's what turns a simple
projectile like a bow and arrow

into a weapon fine-tuned, honed,
and specialised for the rainforest.

And that constant innovation
unlocks resources that were

completely out of reach to other
species of human.

Resources like the rainforest.

And it's this ongoing
evolution of tools

and techniques that has allowed
our species, time and again,

to live and thrive even in
extreme environments.

That is the strength of our species,

that we were opening up
so many new environments,

places that previously other species
saw as impenetrable,

as too difficult, we saw as
having long-term potential,

and we were able to expand in
number,

we were able to then adapt to it.

And as we grew, some people would
decide to move on

to yet another environment.

We were becoming a species with
truly global potential.

It was that ability to take on
so many different, challenging

environments that carried us through
so much of the world...

..by now, to the fringes of
Europe...

..into the cold
expanses of northern Asia...

..and, within only a few thousand
years of leaving Africa,

deep into Southeast Asia.

Lower sea levels had created
a single region known as Sunda...

..where today there are sweeping
stretches of tropical waters.

Our wandering feet brought us
to its outer edge.

Beyond lay an ocean,
dotted with isolated islands.

There are these places that you turn
up to and you think,

"I'm on the edge of the world."

They are incredibly remote
and isolated,

and this is one of those places.

And it's been like this
since the very beginning,

since its formation,

because it's been surrounded by this
very deep sea,

which makes what was
found here even more intriguing,

because a mind-boggling,
completely unexpected human history

plays out here over
hundreds of thousands of years.

Even all those years ago,

the ocean could not stop
the spread of our species.

We reached these remote islands,
thanks to a technology that,

as far as we can tell, we are
the only humans to master.

This is a tuna fish bone.

This particular one happens to
be quite fresh.

It's a few days old.

But we have actually found tuna fish
bones on an archaeological site

on these islands that dates
back to over 40,000 years.

But tuna swim in open waters,
and that means that our ancestors,

over 40,000 years ago, they were
fashioning some kind of vessel,

and going out into the open waters,

and coming back again,
and again, and again.

We can't be sure what form
these vessels took,

since no evidence survives,

but they were probably simple rafts
made from available wood.

And they did more than
just help us fish.

There is a very interesting
archaeological site

on one of the neighbouring
islands that has this one layer

that is just filled with
artefacts belonging to Homo sapiens.

But the layer just before it,

immediately preceding it, is empty
and barren of those same artefacts.

So it almost suggests that our
ancestors just kind of turned up

overnight and spread rapidly through
these islands in large numbers,

just because of the sheer volume
of artefacts within that layer.

And none of that would
really be possible

unless you were skilled enough to
build robust craft,

you were skilled enough to navigate
treacherous waters.

But in a truly surprising twist, we
were not the first to reach Flores.

Somehow,
someone made it here before us.

Sometimes in this job,
you get to fulfil a lifelong dream,

and one of them is about to happen.

See, there's this cave
in palaeoanthropology that isn't

just fascinating,
it's basically explosive.

It started in 1950,

with this one priest called
Father Theodor Verhoeven.

Now, back in the day,
it was actually quite common

for priests and missionaries
to also dabble in archaeology,

so he was out here on Flores
looking for archaeological sites.

And in talking to locals,

he got told about this one cave
that had potential.

He turned up, it was actually being
used as an amateur school,

but just below the surface,
he did actually find archaeology.

Actually, it was stone tools
belonging to ancient humans.

Now, that in of itself is huge,
it's really significant,

but it would take another half
a century before we understood

just how important this cave was.

For over 20 years,
a joint Indonesian and international

team of archaeologists has been
excavating these caves.

They had been searching
for evidence of the spread

of Homo sapiens through the
islands.

Instead, they found something
completely unexpected...

..a strange skeleton from at least
70,000 years ago.

So long before our species reached
this far from Africa.

I think the first thing obviously
that strikes you

when you see her is that
she's very short.

Um, what are we talking, one metre?

- Right, so about three
and a half feet? - Yeah.

- It's got wisdom teeth. - Yes.

Yeah. I mean, the molars are...
The adult molars are there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

As soon as you look closely,
this is 100% an adult.

Yeah. Yeah.

An adult, but the size of a child.

And that was only the first
surprise.

- The legs, they're quite short.
- Yeah.

Whereas, with us...

Our legs are really long...

..compared to arms.

Yeah.

Yup.

- Which is huge...
- Is huge, yes.

..because on me
that would be about that length.

I mean, this is one of those
moments in the history of the field

where I just wish I had been there.

I know she's a replica, but she's
a replica of the real thing,

and, yeah, it's...

It's giving me goose bumps.

This new species of human was
a revelation.

Named Homo floresiensis,
after the island,

they quickly became known to many as
"the hobbits," after the

heroes from the Lord of the Rings,
who were also small as adults.

It's likely they arrived
entirely by chance. Perhaps a few

individuals swept here on driftwood
from the islands to the north...

..more than 700,000 years ago.

Eventually becoming a unique
species,

seemingly with a mix of modern
and more ancient characteristics.

Now, we can see obviously
the brain is small,

but how small are we talking?

- That... - That's right.
- How incredible.

Such a small brain,
and yet they had stone tools.

Before this, scientists assumed that
a human with such a small brain

could never have
developed such tools.

One theory is that they were
initially a much larger

species, before the long
isolation on Flores caused them

to shrink,
a process known as island dwarfism,

where large animals get smaller due
to fewer resources.

At the same time, some small
animals actually get bigger,

due to a lack of predators.

So Stegodons generally are not
the size of water buffaloes.

- Exactly, yeah. - But on this island...

- It's big one. - ..they're the size of
a water buffalo. - Yeah.

And then on this island, you've got
humans that are a metre tall.

Yeah, that small.

What you're describing there is
a species that has been

shaped by this island, has been

shaped by the environment on this
island, and the result is this.

Long isolation allowed evolution to
tailor the hobbit

to this environment.

Their long arms,
compared to short legs,

a response to perhaps
the steep terrain,

or the lack of predators
on the island to run away from.

Physical adaptations that,
along with those simple stone tools,

helped them survive here
for hundreds of thousands of years.

- You can see,
it's like layers of cake. - Yes.

So every period has left a layer.

So this is like a snapshot in time,
telling us

a lot about different periods.

That's basically
flow from volcanic eruption?

Yeah.

Mm-hm.

Right.

Right.

So Homo sapiens.

That's really significant.

So the pyroclastic flow is
when you have the gas

and material that
comes from a volcanic eruption,

and really, I mean, that would just
be quite destructive.

Yeah.

We don't think that that final
eruption alone caused

the extinction of the hobbits.

It would have been a catastrophic
event here at the cave,

but we don't know how it affected
the rest of the island.

What we do know is that this
shows the time of the hobbits here

was coming to an end.

So you're looking at actually quite
a different world down there,

- to up there. Yeah.
- Exactly, yes, exactly.

This tiny island has been home to
two species of human.

One remains to this day.

One vanished long ago.

It is wonderful to imagine what this
place was like before all of this.

Thousands of years
before our ancestors, you had these

miniature elephant-like creatures
who wandered open grasslands.

You had actual dragons,
the Komodo dragons, who still exist.

And then giant marabou storks -
storks that were carnivorous,

that were my height or taller,
and could fly.

It was like a fantasy island.

And amongst all of it,

there were these humans who were
tiny, who came up to about my hip.

And those hobbits lived here on this
island for a staggering

length of time, potentially for
more than 700,000 years,

longer than we've
existed as a species.

And yet, there is this twist,
because so far,

we have found no evidence of them
past these shores.

Their whole story plays out
only on this island of Flores.

Our own species,
in just a fraction of that time,

was able to spread across a huge
portion of the globe.

Around 50,000 years ago, the climate
here became warmer and drier,

changing the environment.

At the same time, those violent
volcanic eruptions also struck.

Whatever the reason, it meant that
Homo floresiensis faced not

just change, but rapid change.

That meant that their physiology,
their physical adaptations,

that for so long had been a benefit,
were now a trap.

They were being left behind,
because it's actually incredibly

difficult to rapidly evolve your way
out of a sudden crisis.

And they couldn't behaviourally
adapt to this change either.

Nor could they, say,
escape and move to another island.

And so these wonderful, fantastic
relatives of ours vanished forever.

And in their place, Homo sapiens
appeared, making this island,

like so many places, their home.

So far, we've found no evidence
that our two species overlapped.

But for many, the final
factor in the hobbit's extinction

is likely our sudden arrival.

The hobbit simply couldn't compete

with this highly adaptable
newcomer...

..a species able to change its
behaviour

to suit almost
any environment and condition.

The very characteristics driving our
continuing spread across the globe.

As we spread further and further
away from Africa,

entering into brand-new
environments

that we had never experienced
before,

we're not just surviving
in these places,

we're actually setting down roots.

And roots that would last us
till this very day.

There was one last part of
this journey to go.

We set out on a path no other human
species had travelled...

..perhaps following tantalising
hints

that there was more land to explore.

Clouds on the horizon,
returning flights of birds...

..or maybe something much more
instinctive that inspired,

we think, dozens of families
to strike out on a voyage that

would carry them
to a new continent...

..Australia.

Now, these were people who were
comfortable on the water,

they were going
from island to island,

but Australia
was something different.

We're talking about a journey that
was up to 100km,

60 miles.

That's days
and nights on the open ocean,

probably in something as basic
as a raft that was perhaps being

propelled
and steered with just paddles.

Launching out into that hostile
and expansive ocean,

that would be an expedition today,
let alone back then.

When I think about the risk
involved,

when I think about the emptiness,
it is just absolutely astonishing.

The islands of Indonesia were
another waypoint

in our ongoing journey.

Our unique adaptability that helped
us cross the harsh deserts...

..and break through
the barrier of the rainforest...

..now carried us practically to the
ends of the Earth.

To Australia, around 9,000 miles
from where we began.

Which does beg the question,
what kept driving us on...

..ultimately inspiring us to take
on the dangers of the open ocean?

It's true that there will often
have been a push.

The simple need to find new
resources

for our expanding population.

But I would argue that that is not
the full explanation,

that this is the most intangible
part of the story.

See, these people, in my opinion,
were just like us,

so they had the same fears
and hopes for their families.

We are clearly the explorer species.

I think that is beyond a doubt.

And, as a result,

we have been able to take on things
that seem absolutely impossible.

In that desire to understand what
was out there,

in the thrill and excitement of
understanding the unknown,

and the willingness to take
risk to know it.

See, wanderlust, creativity

and the imagination required to put
yourself in a different place,

into a different future and world,
I think that is fundamentally us.

We chart the spread of Homo sapiens
into the expanses of Europe

as our species struggles to survive
in the grip of a cruel Ice Age

and comes face-to-face with another
sophisticated species of human...

..the Neanderthals, who had long
mastered life in these cold lands.

In this episode, we filmed at a
place I've long dreamt of visiting,

one of the most important
human archaeological sites of all,

Liang Bua cave...

..where scientists are still
trying to solve the many mysteries

surrounding the hobbits,
the ancient humans that lived here.

In 2004, their discovery sent
shock waves through

the scientific community.

So, the moment the paper's dropped,
it was massive.

It was all over the news.

It was all over the internet.

Everyone was
talking about this tiny,

unexpected hobbit from Indonesia.

Paige has known Thomas
and the team since 2017,

documenting their research.

Like many scientific breakthroughs,

the initial discovery created
intense controversy.

The conferences got
extremely heated.

Sometimes there would be hobbit
sessions where within the same

session, you would have a few
talks would be sort of pro hobbit -

so, "This is a new species,
this is really exciting,

this is changing a lot of what we
thought we knew

about human evolution" -

and then in the same session,

you would have people
that are saying,

"This is the biggest mistake

"that human evolution scientists
have ever made."

Many argued that this was
not a new species,

but a Homo sapiens suffering from an
illness that caused its small

physical features and brain size.

Eventually that was discounted,
and Homo floresiensis was recognised

as a new species of human - raising,
if anything, even more questions.

We still don't know, for example,

where they came from or
who they're closely related to.

So that question of the origins
of Homo floresiensis is still,

I would say,
almost completely an open one.

It's possible
they evolved from another ancient

species of human,
such as Homo erectus,

which we know was in the area
just over a million years ago.

Perhaps carried to the
island by chance,

and then shrunk down over many
years of isolation.

But there is an even more
controversial idea.

If you look really hard at a lot
of the characteristics,

particularly below the cranium...

..you see that this is a creature

that looks a lot more like some of
our really ancient ancestors,

more than
two million years old, in Africa.

And so maybe there was an exodus
out of Africa a million years

before we thought there was.

This current dig might
reveal the answer.

With help from the
Max Planck Institute in Germany,

researchers are trying to collect
fragments of hobbit DNA.

Ancient DNA is really
helpful at really laying out

relationships for us between
different species across time.

And so, because of the way that
mutations accumulate over time,

it allows us
to kind of work backwards

and trace back when some of those
lineages would have split.

Homo floresiensis, and whoever
their closest ancestor is,

which is not a question we can
answer until we kind of

have some of that information.

The problem is successfully finding
hobbit DNA will not be easy.

Normally it would be impossible to
recover DNA from a situation

where it's this hot.

It's just too difficult.

DNA degrades really rapidly,
and other things move in

and muddy up the signal,
like bacteria and other things.

But in this cave in particular,

it is at a slightly higher altitude
than a lot of Indonesia is,

it's right up in the mountains,

and so it is a little bit cooler
than most equatorial areas.

And so there is a little
bit of hope that we might be able to

get a little bit of a signal
from the species.

If successful, we might finally
solve the mystery of the hobbit.

Whatever happens, Homo floresiensis
will remain one of the most

important and unexpected
discoveries of recent history.