Discovery of “hobbit” fossils suggests tiny humans roamed Indonesian islands 700,000 years ago
Twenty years ago on an Indonesian island, scientists discovered fossils of an early human species that stood at about 3 1/2 feet tall, earning them the nickname “hobbits.”
Now a new study suggests ancestors of the hobbits were even slightly shorter.
“We did not expect that we would find smaller individuals from such an old site,” said Yousuke Kaifu, co-author of the study, which was published on Tuesday in the journal Nature.
Indonesian island of Flores — evolved to be so small and where they fall in the human evolutionary story. They’re thought to be among the last early human species to go extinct.
Gerrit van den Bergh / AP
Scientists don’t yet know whether the hobbits shrank from an earlier, taller human species called Homo erectus that lived in the area, or from an even more primitive human predecessor. More research — and fossils — are needed to pin down the hobbits’ place in human evolution, said Matt Tocheri, an anthropologist at Canada’s Lakehead University.
“This question remains unanswered and will continue to be a focus of research for some time to come,” Tocheri, who was not involved with the research, said in an email.
Source: cbsnews.com