Hobbit Species May Have Evolved from Early Humans: Island Dwarves Smarter than Once Thought

Move over, Bilbo Baggins. You have some competition. Researchers have found that the "hobbit" humans that once lived on the Indonesian island of Flores may have had far larger brains than previously thought. This could mean that these creatures could have been a version of the early species Homo erectus.

About 12,000 years ago, the so-called "hobbit humans" lived in isolation in their island community. In 2003, partial skeletons were recovered along with stone tools, which reveal that these creatures certainly could use and keep various instruments. Standing only a few inches above three feet, these people had legs that were short relative to their arms and feet, prompting researchers to believe that the species was primitive when their remains were first discovered.

Now, though, new research may show that these hobbit humans were far less primitive than once believed. Scientists used high-resolution micro-CT scanning to study the brain regions of hobbit human skulls. Surprisingly, they found that the brains measured 426 cc--far larger than the 400 cc that had been previously estimated. Although this size still isn't huge by modern standards, it would have given hobbit humans the brain size of a chimpanzee.

What does that mean exactly? It's possible that the hobbit humans actually evolved from H. erectus. Currently, researchers believe that a population of early humans lived on the mainland. Either intentionally or unintentionally, a group of H. erectus made it to the island of Flores. There, the isolated population could have evolved their unique characteristics.

Yet there remains the question of why the hobbit humans became so small while their cousins grew to relatively giant proportions. One of the researchers, Yousuke Kaifu, has an explanation.

"A popular theory is that big mammals tend to reduce and small mammals tend to increase their body sizes on an isolated island because of energetic demands," said Kaifu in an interview with Discovery News.

For example, elephants will become smaller due to the lack of predators on the island and the fact that they don't need to maintain large, bulky bodies. In contrast, a type of stork and lizard on the island became larger because food was plentiful and carnivores were scarce.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Want to learn more about the hobbit humans and the discovery? Check out the video here.