Study Says Komodo Dragons Hunted 1.5-Ton Stegodon as Flores Hobbits Scavenged

Q: Did giant dragons, not Hobbits, actually hunt the pygmy elephants of ancient Flores?

Yes. The strongest current evidence indicates that Komodo dragons were the main predators of Flores’s pygmy elephants, or *Stegodon*, while *Homo floresiensis* likely scavenged the carcasses. The shift comes from a new reanalysis of *Stegodon* bones from Liang Bua cave, where the “Hobbit” fossils were found. Researchers identified not just stone-tool cut marks but also tooth marks. To test what made them, the team observed a Komodo dragon feeding on a goat carcass at Zoo Atlanta. The dragon’s serrated teeth and head-shaking feeding style produced shallow, short, wide marks that matched those on the ancient bones. The placement of the marks is central to the argument. Komodo dragon tooth marks were concentrated on the meatiest, highest-value parts of the body, including limbs, ribs and fat-rich feet, consistent with a predator feeding first. Stone-tool marks were also present, but they fit a later stage of carcass processing, suggesting *Homo floresiensis* cut meat from remains after the dragons had already fed. That does not prove Hobbits never hunted anything, but it weakens the long-standing idea that they were regular big-game hunters of *Stegodon*. The study also reports no convincing evidence that *Homo floresiensis* used fire at Liang Bua, further revising earlier views of their behavior. So the emerging picture is of Komodo dragons as the primary hunters and *Homo floresiensis* as opportunistic scavengers sharing the same ecosystem on ancient Flores.

3 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Jul 10

Komodo dragons, not Homo floresiensis, likely killed the pygmy elephants found at Flores’ Liang Bua cave, with the so-called Hobbits arriving later to cut meat from the carcasses, researchers said.
To test that idea, Elizabeth Veatch’s team fed a goat carcass to a Komodo dragon at Zoo Atlanta and matched the resulting tooth damage to Stegodon bones bearing both dragon marks and stone-tool cuts.
The tooth marks were shorter, wider and shallower than tool cuts, and they clustered on the meatiest parts—limbs, ribs and fat-rich feet—the same pattern seen in the cave fossils.
The finding challenges the long-held view that the small-bodied hominins were big-game hunters and could reshape ideas about Homo floresiensis’ behavior and early hominin expansion beyond Africa.