'Hobbit' Humans are Distinct Homo Species: Fossil Skulls Reveal Truth

When small fossils were found on the islands of Flores, archaeologists weren't sure exactly what they'd found. The bones looked as if they might have been from some species of human, but they were far smaller than a modern human. Named Homo floresiensis and nicknamed "hobbit" humans, this species has intrigued researchers. Now, they may have learned a little bit more about this race of hobbit humans. Scientists have examined the skulls of this species in order to determine whether or not they're actually human.

About 12,000 years ago, so-called "hobbit humans" lived in isolation in their island community. Standing only a few inches above three feet, these people had legs that were short relative to their arms, prompting researchers to believe that the species was primitive when their remains were first discovered.

Yet it's the skull size of hobbit humans that has really troubled researchers. It's relatively small, which indicates that it had a small brain. Yet it's also possible that the species suffered from the condition known as microcephaly. Because of this, scientists have been unable to determine whether the hobbit humans were Homo erectus suffering from island dwarfism, or if they were a distinct Homo species.

In order to find that out, researchers applied powerful methods of 3-D geometric morphometrics to compare the shape of a skull cranium to many fossil humans, as well as a large sample of modern human crania suffering from microcephaly and other pathological conditions. Geometric morphometrics is a method that uses 3D coordinates of cranial surface anatomical landmarks, computer imaging and statistics to achieve a detailed analysis of shape.

The researchers found that the skull showed much greater similarities to the fossil human sample than to pathological modern humans. This means that it's highly unlikely that hobbit humans were actually modern humans with some type of disorder. Instead, it's very possible that this species is distinct, forming its own population on the island of Flores in the distant past.

"Our findings provide the most comprehensive evidence to date linking the Home floresiensis skull with extinct fossil human species rather than with pathological modern humans," said the scientists involved in the study in a news release. "Our study therefore refutes the hypothesis that this specimen represents a modern human with a pathological condition, such as microcephaly."

The findings are published in the journal PLOS One.