Other Human species becoming dominant

[fortyseven]

Hobbits domesticate dwarf elephant. Hobbit dwarf elephantry auxiliaries.

 

[Sven]

Also, I can't think of a reason why any potential Australian "hobbits" would have fared noticeably better than OTL's Australian Aborigines.

I can think of one: Australia's location and geology makes it dry, harsh, and irregular, with times of relative wetness punctuating long periods of drought. This sort of harsh environment would encourage the development of intelligence as an adaptation to combat the unstable climate.

If this were the case, I would expect OTL's Aboriginal Australians to be exceptionally intelligent, on average. Maybe that's the case, but I suspect that they average about the same as other groups of people.

I want to be clear that I don't have any problems with Homo floresiensis reaching Australia or developing a late-surviving "hobbit civilization" there. My intention was to provide a reality check for the open-ended, "who knows what they could have done?" scenario that was developing here.

There is no reason to think the hobbits might have developed technology faster or better than the Aboriginals did, and their small stature would likely inhibit their ability to withstand the modern-human advance and inhibit their integration into modern-human society. As bad as the Aboriginals had it in OTL, the hobbits would likely have gotten worse.

 

[twovultures]

If this were the case, I would expect OTL's Aboriginal Australians to be exceptionally intelligent, on average. Maybe that's the case, but I suspect that they average about the same as other groups of people.

I base this on one theory that changing environments in Africa was one of the factors that selected for intelligence among humans.

Homo sapiens are already smart enough that they don't need to get particularly smarter to survive in Australia, or at least, the trade off for having even bigger brains (nigh-impossible births, lots and lots of food to fuel the brain) isn't evolutionarily worth it. Early hominids, on the other hand, may still select for larger brains under the greater pressure, and the downsides will be outweighed by the benefits in *Homo australis just as it was for Homo sapiens.

For the question of size, getting Homo erectus to Australia before they went through the island dwarfing could produce a reasonably sized intelligent hominid, as Australia has not triggered island dwarfing in animals that have ended up there.

I agree, though, an entirely different species could very well have it worse than the Aborigines of our timeline, terrible as that would be.

EDIT: Though depending on how immune they are to human diseases, they could put up a stiff resistance to human invasion. Primates can be affected by flu, tuberculosis, and the common cold. But what effect would measles or smallpox have on *Homo australis?

 

[vultan]

If homo floresiensis is going to found a hobbit civilization anywhere, wouldn't New Zealand make the most sense?

 

[Umbral]

Hobbits domesticate dwarf elephant. Hobbit dwarf elephantry auxiliaries.

Or those giant rats from that island of theirs. Consider a specific culture of Homo Florensis...they were already tool and fire users, and cooperative hunters.

Cannibals, chimp-strong, with fire and communication and thrown rocks, with their gigantic rats, bred for agression to strangers over thousands of years, howling thought the black forests and mountains of Borneo and Sumatra...might discourage humans from moving down to Australia.

I'd call this culture...Orcs.

 

[Sven]

Homo sapiens are already smart enough that they don't need to get particularly smarter to survive in Australia, or at least, the trade off for having even bigger brains (nigh-impossible births, lots and lots of food to fuel the brain) isn't evolutionarily worth it. Early hominids, on the other hand, may still select for larger brains under the greater pressure, and the downsides will be outweighed by the benefits in *Homo australis just as it was for Homo sapiens.

Well, I suppose it's possible. I'm a skeptic, but a timeline to this effect would certainly be interesting. I think the realist in me finds it more plausible for them to remain Stone Age tribes until they are discovered by the outside world.

For the question of size, getting Homo erectus to Australia before they went through the island dwarfing could produce a reasonably sized intelligent hominid, as Australia has not triggered island dwarfing in animals that have ended up there.

I think the idea of the hobbits has rather more charm, though.

 

[fortyseven]

Or those giant rats from that island of theirs. Consider a specific culture of Homo Florensis...they were already tool and fire users, and cooperative hunters.

Cannibals, chimp-strong, with fire and communication and thrown rocks, with their gigantic rats, bred for agression to strangers over thousands of years, howling thought the black forests and mountains of Borneo and Sumatra...might discourage humans from moving down to Australia.

I'd call this culture...Orcs.

I love this.

 

[Umbral]

I love this.

Having thought about it...an early domestication event lets them breed rats to several purposes. Rats are ominvores and not picky on what they eat, so you could have food beast working like a pig analogue, turning slops into meat. And big, mean guard and hunting Rats.

Rats also seem very good at transfering diseases to humans, so by the time of first contact, you couls have several nasty diseases having jumped the species barrier, with the Orcs having aqquired considerable immunity.