In 2003, on the remote island of Flores in Indonesia, an 18,000 year-old fossil was discovered of Homo Floresiensis, a humanoid, one metre high. The discovery of the fossil led researchers to believe that they were a unique species of human, and not in fact deformed.

Scientists believe the species to have been a descendent from Homo erectus. But of course not all scientists agreed with that idea. Some believe it impossible for another human species to have existed so close, chronologically speaking to present day humans, and believe that the hobbit was a human that had microcephaly, a condition that results in a small head, small body and mental deformaties.

The brain of the fossil was compared to modern and extinct human groups, and it has been found that the brain was larger than expected at 426 cubic cm.

Older studies argued that the hobbit could not have descended from Homo erectus as their brain was typically 1,000 cubic centimeters in size, which would then have to suggest that the Homo erectus shrank over time. However, a Javanese specimen of Homo erectus shows the brain size to be 860 cubic cm.

Researcher Yousuke Kaifu a paleoanthropologist at Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo said:

This study does not prove who was the actual ancestral species for Homo floresiensis, but it has removed the most important concern for the model, which supposes Homo erectus was the ancestral species.

The hobbit has other possible ancestor too, Kaifu said:

Homo habilis could also be the ancestor, but this model still has the problem that no fossil record exists for the presence of such a primitive form of hominin in Asia.

Hopefully future research will uncover greater fossils and more findings from the islnad of Flores.

[Source: Business Insider]