> In 2004, what was discovered in Indonesia, on the island of Flores?And the answer: skeletons of hobbit-sized human species.Photo credit: Beawiharta Beawiharta/Reuters.In 2004, a team of researchersdiscovered the remains of a hobbit-sized human, one that stood about a metertall. It's believed that the species lived with Pygmy elephants and giantlizards on a remote island in Indonesia about 60,000 years ago.While Bilbo and Frodo may have been invented by J.R.R. Tolkien, scientists haverecently discovered a species of ancient human that walks the line of fantasyand reality. On the Indonesian island of Flores, the teeth of up to 12 Homofloresiensis have been recovered. This remarkable species of human (for whichscientists had to create a new category altogether) clocks in at just over 3feet tall and weighs an estimated 55 pounds. At the time of their discovery, scientists believed the species suffered adisease or growth disorder within the Homo sapien family tree (the tree to whichall living human beings now belong), but the Homo floresiensis is now considereda separate human species. Scientists believe that the small, predator-free humanspecies survived by creating stone tools that they used to hunt small elephantsand rodents on the island (in fact, animal remains on the island have revealedsimilarly unique genetic structures: tiny elephants and giant rodents are but some of the few[https://humanorigins.si.edu/research/asian-research-projects/hobbits-flores-indonesia] abnormalities). These small, ancient humans of Flores are still largely a mystery toarchaeologists and anthropologists alike. The fossils of H. floresiensis date tobetween about 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, but stone tools made by this speciesdate to between about 190,000 and 50,000 years old. Ancestors of the species arenow believed to have reigned on the island around 700,000 years ago, suggestingthat these remarkably small-brained humans were a thriving, independent speciesfor many generations.Learn more about the real-life hobbits here[https://www.nature.com/articles/514422a].
