Scientists Just Found The Remains of a 700,000-Year-Old 'Hobbit'

An international team of researchers has reported the discovery of 700,000-year-old remains linked to a diminutive group of human ancestors affectionately nicknamed the “hobbits”.

Recovered from an island in Indonesia, these newly identified hominins seem to have reached only about 1 metre in height, although it is not yet certain whether they represent a distinct new species.

What is striking is how closely they resemble the already recognised hobbit species, Homo floresiensis - except these individuals lived more than 600,000 years earlier, a finding that unsettles what we thought we knew about hominin evolution.

"This find has important implications for our understanding of early human dispersal and evolution in the region and quashes once and for all any doubters that believe Homo floresiensis was merely a sick modern human (Homo sapiens)," said lead researcher Gert van den Bergh, from the University of Wollongong in Australia.

"Remarkably, these fossils, which include two milk teeth from children, are at least 700,000 years old."

Flores “hobbits” fossils: 700,000-year-old hominins and Homo floresiensis

A 2012 reconstruction of Homo floresiensis is shown below.

Susan Hayes/University of Wollongong

At a location called Mata Menge, on the Indonesian island of Flores, the researchers unearthed part of a jaw and six teeth. The material represents at least one adult and two children, and had been entombed beneath an ancient riverbed.

Flores is also where H. floresiensis was first announced in 2003. The species - quickly dubbed the “hobbit” - is extraordinary because it may have persisted alongside modern humans until as recently as 12,000 years ago.

Even so, some researchers have maintained that the bones were not from a separate, small-bodied hominin species at all, but instead belonged to unwell modern humans.

The new fossils strengthen the case against that interpretation - and go further, indicating that the forebears of these short-statured hominins were present in Indonesia hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens arrived. Put plainly, the hobbits were genuine.

Another reconstruction of these small figures, created by Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, appears below.

Kinez Riza

"All the fossils are indisputably hominin and they appear to be remarkably similar to those of Homo floresiensis," said one of the researchers, Yousuke Kaifu, from Tokyo's National Museum of Nature and Science, who compared the fossils against a modern and extinct hominins.

Where the hobbits sit on the family tree - and how they reached Flores

So, how do these hobbits slot into our family tree, and what explains their presence on a remote island? Writing in Nature, the team argues that they could have originated from a taller, fully upright species, Homo erectus, and then reduced in size.

"The morphology of the fossil teeth also suggests that this human lineage represents a dwarfed descendant of early Homo erectus that somehow got marooned on the island of Flores," said Kaifu.

"What is truly unexpected is that the size of the finds indicates that* Homo floresiensis* had already obtained its small size by at least 700,000 years ago," he added.

Supporting the idea of an even longer occupation, ancient tools discovered at the same site and dated to 1 million years ago imply the hobbits may have been there earlier still, later developing their small stature in response to island conditions.

If that scenario holds, it would compel a reworking of the hominin family tree.

"It is conceivable that the tiny Homo floresiensis evolved its miniature body proportions during the initial 300,000 years on Flores, and is thus a dwarfed side lineage that ultimately derives from Homo erectus," said van den Bergh.

"It is also possible that this lineage pre-dates the first hominin arrival on Flores, implying speciation occurred on a stepping-stone island between Asia and Flores, such as Sulawesi."

A comparison image is shown below: a modern human skull (right) beside a hobbit skull (left), with the newly discovered 700,000-year-old jaw fragment superimposed.

Kinez Riza

What comes next at Mata Menge

Researchers are now excavating further into the ancient riverbed in the hope of recovering more complete skeletal remains - evidence that will be crucial for properly assessing and classifying what has been found. At the same time, they are searching for a precursor species that could clarify the relationship between Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis.

Plenty remains unresolved, but this work moves us much nearer to explaining this puzzling tiny species and its place in our lineage.

For van den Bergh, the announcement is particularly significant: he has worked at the site for over 20 years, including alongside Australian scientist Mike Morwood, who revealed the original hobbit species in 2003 and died three years ago.

"My only regret is that Mike passed away in 2013 and therefore did not live to share the experience and the excitement of these new hominin fossils. We both knew they must be there," said van den Bergh.

"I think Mike would have quite enjoyed the fact that the field of palaeoanthropology is poised for another major shakeup."

And, in all honesty, we are rather thrilled about it as well.