Could Hobbits Have Been Real After All? New Human Discovery Excites Scientists!


Scientists have discovered bones belonging to a new species of human on a small island in Indonesia, called Flores. Several skeletons have been discovered so far, found by Australian archaeologists while they were digging in caves.

Shows a photo of two human skulls side by side against a black background. One is much smaller than the other.

This picture compares the size of a modern human's skull to that of the newly discovered species. There's a big difference isn't there?


The skeletons show that the humans would have been very small, only about 1 metre tall. They would have walked upright, just like us. Their heads were only about the size of a grapefruit but they did have rather long arms. More on those later…


Scientists have given the species the nickname of 'Hobbit' but the scientific name is 'Homo floresiensis'. The nickname is just for fun, in actual fact these people wouldn't have looked anything like Elijah Wood or his Lord of the Rings mates.

This close-up picture shows a cast of a skull scientists have named LB1. The real skull was very, very fragile when it was found, so a plastic model was made, then casts were taken from the model.

Go to the bottom of the page to find out where you can go to see a cast.

Shows a photo of a cast of a human skull, in close-up, on a white background.


The skeletons dated back about 18,000 years but there is evidence the 'Hobbits' lived on Flores up until about 12,000 years ago, when a huge volcano killed off most of the island's wildlife.


This is a really important discovery because up until now, nobody knew these tiny people had ever existed. Their skeletons can give us many clues to the way they lived and the sort of people they were.


	The findings from the dig on Flores were first published in Nature magazine. Here's the cover of the historic issue!

One of the most interesting things about these tiny humans is the size of their brain. With a head the size of a grapefruit, they didn't have much space for a great big brain.

Up until now most scientists have thought that animals or humans with small brains couldn't have been very clever. But (and it's a BIG but), this discovery proves these people did some very intelligent things - even without big brains.

The fact that the 'Hobbit' people lived on the island at all proves they were pretty clever - they would have had to make some kind of boat to get there in the first place.

Also, several stone tools were found close to the skeletons, proving again that they could make useful things to help them in their daily life - another sign of intelligence.

This is an artist's drawing of an early species of human called Homo erectus. The newly discovered species is thought to have evolved from people like this chap.

Shows a drawing of a man. He's naked, with lots of dark hair and is walking along holding a stick.


In another fascinating twist to the story, the people who live on Flores today have legends about a group of little, hairy people called Ebu Gogo who lived on the island. In the legends the Ebu Gogo use their own language with each other and can even repeat things the modern humans say to them.

The latest versions of the legends only go back about 100 years, leaving some scientists wondering if Homo floresiensis survived until then.

One editor at Nature magazine has even wondered whether there may be some of these tiny people still alive today, hiding in the remote lush forests of other Indonesian islands! Do you think that might be possible?


	If you're interested in the discovery and want to find out more, The Science Museum have put together a fantastic 'Antenna' mini-site about the 'Hobbit' discovery full of info and pictures. It's well worth a visit!

Back to the arms - remember we mentioned the long arms earlier? These have fascinated Professor Chris Stringer, an expert from the Natural History Museum in London, who thought they might prove that the 'Hobbits' spent lots of time in trees.

He told the BBC website that "we don't know this. But if there were Komodo dragons about you might want to live up in the trees with your babies where it's safe. It's something for future research."

Another scientist from the Natural History Museum, Dr Louise Humphrey, is going to be talking about the 'Hobbit' skeletons in a live webcast on Thursday November 4 2004 at 2.30pm. Visit the Darwin Centre website to find out more.

Don't worry if you can't watch the webcast then, you can always watch it from their archive later on.

To see the skull cast, go along to the Science Museum before the end of December 2004, where they have the only cast of the LB1 skull on display outside Australia!