Fossils discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores suggest that ancestors of an early human species known as “hobbits” were even smaller than previously thought.
Hobbits, scientifically called Homo floresiensis, stood around 3 feet tall and lived between 60,000-100,000 years ago on Flores. They were discovered in 2003.
New research on arm bone and teeth fossils found at a site called Mata Menge on Flores dates them to 700,000 years ago.
Analysis indicates these even earlier hobbit relatives were only around 2.4 inches taller than the documented hobbits, suggesting they were very small at only around 2 feet 6 inches tall.
This provides new evidence that ancestors of the hobbits were small and that this small size may have evolved earlier than previously thought. However, their exact evolutionary history and relation to other human species is still debated.
The find sheds new light on the emergence of tiny body sizes in some early human populations that lived on isolated Indonesian islands. But more fossils are needed to fully understand hobbits’ place in human evolution.
Source: AP
