More remains of "hobbits" discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores lend strength to the theory that these unusual humans descended from an isolated group who experienced dwarfism, researchers say. The 700,000-year-old teeth and upper arm bone, described in a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, are among the oldest of the Homo floresiensis fossils yet discovered on Flores, which is believed to have hosted the human species up until about 60,000 years ago. Study co-author Adam Brumm, a professor of archaeology at Australia's Griffith University, notes the fragment of humerus represents "the smallest upper arm bone known from the hominin fossil record worldwide," per the Guardian.
Researchers believe the arm bone came from an adult who stood less than 3'4" tall, per the New York Times. Two teeth taken from the same Mata Menge site resemble the teeth of Homo erectus, thought to be a predecessor of H. floresiensis, but are much smaller. Taken together, the fossils suggest "the early progenitors of the 'hobbit' were even smaller than we had previously thought," says Brumm. They support the theory that Flores' "hobbits" descended from a group of Homo erectus that experienced island dwarfism after somehow becoming stranded on the island, researchers say.
Though there's no direct evidence of H. erectus on Flores, stone tools have been dated to 1 million years ago. Researchers believe H. erectus reached the island from Java around that time, then became isolated and shrank over hundreds of thousands of years. As the Guardian explains, large body size would've served no advantage on Flores, which had no other large mammals, whereas "a smaller body size can be advantageous in surviving periodic food shortages on islands." Some archaeologists aren't convinced by the theory, however, noting it's possible H. floresiensis descended from hominins in Africa before reaching Flores in an already shrunken state. (Some claim hobbits still survive today.)
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