Hobbits, for real.

Ten years ago archaeologists uncovered the bones of an extremely small hominid in a cave on the island of Flores in Indonesia.  They initially believed that it was the skeleton of a child, but upon further research it was determined to be a very small adult.  It only stood three feet tall and it's brain would have been the size of an orange.  It's scientific name is Homo floresiensis, but was quickly nicknamed the "Hobbit."  Since the initial discovery, more Hobbit skeletons have been found in the cave.

Hobbit skull next to modern human skull.

There have been many theories since the discovery in 2004 as to how the creature came to be and where it fits in with other hominids.  Dating shows that the skeleton is from 18,000 years ago.  That means that the Hobbit was living during the same time as modern humans.  Some experts think that the Hobbit is just a human with some kind of disease, defect, or a condition like dwarfism or Down syndrome.  But there are skeletal features that are unlike any modern human; it has more primitive bone structures.

Some evolutionary biologists believe that the Hobbit could have once been part of Homo erectus which had made its way to Southeast Asia and then became stranded in Indonesia.  There is a process called "island dwarfism" that can occur.  Animals that are isolated in certain island conditions can evolve to be smaller so that they expend less energy living in the harsh environment.  Is this why the Hobbit is so small?

There are lots of theories about how it came to be and how it got to a remote island, but no answers on the Hobbit yet.  The Hobbit raises a lot of questions about human evolution and migration out of Africa that evolutionary biologists had never considered before.