Tiny Humans and miniature Elephants too! Enormous Rats and gigantic Lizards! Storks actually large enough to deliver a baby, or more likely to have it for dinner! Welcome to Flores, an isolated island in Indonesia that is a bizarro world of the highest order.
Most of these disproportionately sized animals died off (especially the smaller ones) around 50,000 years ago, but the giant Dragons and Rats are around even today. Initially this strange menagerie was believed to still be alive as recently as 12,000 years ago. Still a species of miniature men that were in existence such a relatively short time ago as 50,000 years was still considered a major discovery when it took place in 2003.
The Flores Man (most people call them Hobbits) stood a little over 3 feet tall. The Flores man had large feet (so it wouldn’t fall over) in order to compensate for their short stature. And although its’ brain was small, it developed tools and lived as many of our stone age ancestors did. They were definitely Hominins but whether or not they were Humans is another story. A bone in their hand is not found in humans but instead in Chimpanzees.
Their size is believed to have been caused by insular dwarfism. On an island where there are often limited resources; species adapt by shrinking. Smaller people equals reduced needs. This is also what happened to the Stegadons, or what we would think of as Early Elephants. These primitive Elephants were about 600 pounds, not exactly svelte but a far cry from the 6,000 or so pounds, a modern Elephant weighs.
Another factor in all of this is, that Oceanic Islands like Flores, arise from the deep-sea and have never been connected to a major landmass, the way islands off the coast of a continent have. All of which leads to a strange, and not too diverse, populating of the ecosystem. Animals adept at swimming can reach them and even those who can fly have no trouble but those who choose not to swim often don’t. Think cats and their dislike of being wet. They are there now on Flores but we brought them with us.
Which brings us to the giant lizard known as the Komodo Dragon. Now Flores is not the only place the Dragon lives but they all dwell on a group of islands clumped together in Indonesia. The Komodo are 10 feet long and weigh in at 150 pounds and if that’s not scary enough they hunt in packs and their saliva has a compound which can paralyze those they bite.
Komodo Dragons are a product of the obverse of insular dwarfism, called island gigantism. Since there were no other large carnivores living on the island the Komodo grew to fill the vacancy. What vacancy the giant rats filled, who knows but they are twice the size of the next biggest rat in the world. They can only be found on Flores (sorry Sherlock and Firesign fans there are none on Sumatra) but they are in danger of extinction from the very same nonnative cats mentioned earlier.
Finally there is the giant Stork. A Marabou Stork which stood 5 feet 10 inches tall. It towered over the Flores Man but we have no proof they ate humans, even tiny ones. But Storks are opportunistic carnivores and like vultures eat mostly carrion. And they have been known to eat smaller mammals and reptiles. Maybe that’s why the rats and lizards got bigger.
No one knows for sure but it must have been a lively scene on Flores when all these diverse groups were milling about. Diminutive Humans! Mega Rats! Monster Lizards! Miniscule Elephants! Massive Storks! And who knows what else that we haven’t found yet. Scary and extraordinary as all get out and certainly very different than anywhere else on earth.