Scott Solomon

These absolutely giant lizards.

I mean, really like a real dragon on that same island at the same time as Homo floresiensis.

And that's the thing that happens on islands is enormous.

You know, a lot of times they'll get smaller, but sometimes they'll get much bigger.

Think about, you know, giant tortoises like in the Galapagos Islands, right?

So we call this the island rule.

And the idea is like things change size.

They either get much bigger or much smaller.

And that seems to be true of hominids, which are basically, you know, humans or human-like species as well, right?

And I promised I would give you the twist.

So there is actually, since that discovery, there was another discovery of another hominid, also small-bodied, on an island in the Philippines.

And it's a different species.

No way!

Yeah, Homo luzonensis now, luzon.

Same effect, but a different speciation.

That's the interpretation.

We think that this is yet another instance where...

Some type of hominid goes isolated and became smaller.

So the initial dates when those fossils were first discovered were that they survived up until very recently by like, you know, historical, not historical, by evolutionary standards, by sort of the geological timescale that, you know, we scientists are used to.

Those dates have since been pushed back a bit as they've gotten more evidence.