Hobbits happened!

Does a two-hour seminar on the unearthing of fossils and ancestral remains send you into the perfect afternoon slumber? Palentology has a new angle with the discovery of an ancient human species comparable to Hobbits.

The humans of small stature inhabited the island of Flores up to 8,000 years ago. Reaching a height of just one metre tall, it is thought that ‘Hobbit’ skeletons belong to a new species of human and not pygmies – modern humans who grow to a maximum of only 150cm (4ft 11in).

Researchers are arguing vehemently as to the identity of these diminutive people, but perhaps the most plausible assumption is that their bodies evolved to be smaller in size over many years through a natural selection process known as Island Dwarfing. Due to predation pressure and restricted resources, this phenomenon can be dramatic. It may come of no surprise to you that their miniature physiques accompanied chimp-sized brains, approximately one third the size of a modern human’s.

Evidence of complex tools found upon the Indonesian island suggests that these astonishing little people utilized such creations to hunt tiny elephants.

That which most astounds, however, is the fact that even the modern humans colonising the area at that time, were unaware of the Hobbits’ existence.