Fossils suggest early human 'hobbits' had ancestors who were even smaller
Fossils remains suggest an early human species nicknamed “hobbits” had ancestors who were even shorter, according to a study published Tuesday.
Fossils remains suggest an early human species nicknamed “hobbits” had ancestors who were even shorter, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature.
The extinct Homo floresiensis were named after the Indonesian island of Flores where they roamed, though scientists also refer to them as hobbits after the “Lord of the Rings” characters. Fossils that were discovered on the island 20 years ago and date back 60,000 to 100,000 years suggested the species was about 3 1/2 feet tall.
Researchers who studied fragments of a humerus, or upper arm bone, that were found on the same island in 2013 now say that earlier relatives were 2.4 inches shorter and existed since at least 700,000 years ago.
“It is the smallest adult human arm bone ever,” said Gerrit van den Bergh, a co-author of the study and a paleontologist at the University of Wollongong, Australia. “It’s quite special.”
It took researchers almost a decade to deduce the height from the 3.5-inch bone, which was excavated about 45 miles away from the original Liang Bua cave site, and to be sure it belonged to an adult and not a child.
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