Where Did the Hobbits Come From?
Some scientists suggest that the unique species existed before its arrival on Flores. They hypothesize that a tiny species of human ancestors left Africa at the same time Homo erectus did about 1.8 million years ago. (Named for its upright walk, H. erectus is thought by many scientists to be a direct ancestor of modern humans.) The team of archaeologists that found the new remains led by Mike Morwood, Bert Roberts, and Thomas Sutikna suggests that the hobbits are the result of island dwarfing, an evolutionary procedure where species become smaller over many years to adapt to the limited resources of their environment. Smaller species, the thinking goes, can get by on less food. If an isolated human species occupied Flores for the better part of a million years, it may have undergone dwarfing, the researchers say. “We know that large mammals tend to shrink,” Morwood explained. “The smallest stegodon species [a small elephant-like animal] in the world is from Flores. On Flores and adjace
