The Lilliputians

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There once was a species of human-like people, roaming around Flores Island in present-day Indonesia, who were no taller than 3.5 feet. Scientists have dubbed them “hobbits” after the small characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel, “The Lord of the Rings.”

Fossils found 21 years ago allowed researchers to determine that they lived around 60,000 years ago. Now, after examining other bones found in 2013, scientists have learned about even earlier ‘hobbits’ and also their ancestry, detailed in a new study.

Archeologists found teeth and a fragment of an upper arm bone at Flores’ Mata Menge site, a few miles away from the cave where the 2003 fossils were found. They date back 700,000 years.

“Teeth have lots of goofy little grooves and peaks that seem to probably serve some purpose, but also seem to be very species-specific,” Stony Brook University’s Susan Larson, who was not involved in the study, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

The teeth confirmed a theory that the hobbits descended from Homo erectus, the first hominin species known to have lived outside of Africa. H. erectus who landed on Flores Island eventually became smaller, probably because of the food supply on the island. “Perhaps, there was no need to be large-bodied, which requires more food and takes longer to grow and breed,” lead author Yousuke Kaifu from the University of Tokyo told CNN.

One discovery baffled the scientists: Among the fossils, they found a 3.5-inch upper arm bone.

“It is the smallest adult human arm bone ever,” co-author Gerrit van der Bergh from the University of Wollongong told NBC News.

After a decade of research, they estimated that the owner of this bone was a few inches shorter than the 60,000-year-old bone.

Why did the Flores Island hobbits, derived from much taller H. erectus, become smaller and then grow again? “This is what we’re still trying to get our head round,” archeologist Adam Brumm told ABC. “It could just be some natural size variation within the population. It could be a male and female thing”.