20 Years Ago on an Island in Indonesia, Scientists Discovered Hobbit Fossils.
Co-author of the study, Yousuke Kaifu from the University of Tokyo, stated: “We did not expect to find even smaller individuals at such an ancient site.“
The Hobbit Fossils were originally dated between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago. The newly excavated fossils were found at a site called Mata Menge, located approximately 72.5 km from the cave where the original fossils were discovered.
In 2016, after studying the jawbones and teeth collected from the new site, researchers suspected that the earlier relatives of the Hobbits could be even shorter. Further analysis of a small arm bone fragment and teeth indicated that the ancestors of the Hobbits were about 6 cm shorter than this species and existed around 700,000 years ago.
The arm bone fragment excavated at Mata Menge (left) shares the same proportions as the arm bone of Homo floresiensis excavated from Liang Bua cave on Flores Island, Indonesia. (Photo: University of Tokyo).
Evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk from Florida State University, who was not involved in the study, noted: “They have convincingly shown that these are very small individuals.”
These findings were published on August 6 in the journal Nature Communications.
Researchers have debated how the Hobbits, named Homo floresiensis after the remote island of Flores in Indonesia, evolved to be so diminutive and where they fit in the human evolutionary story. They are believed to be one of the last human species to go extinct.
Scientists are still uncertain whether the Hobbits shrank from a taller earlier human species known as Homo erectus, which once lived in this region, or from an even more primitive human species.
Anthropologist Matt Tocheri from Lakehead University in Canada emphasized the need for further research and fossils to pinpoint the position of the Hobbits in human evolutionary history.
“This question remains unanswered and will continue to be a focus of research in the near future,” Tocheri, who did not participate in the study, added.
