An artist's impression of Homo floresiensis SA Museum
Extinct humanoids dubbed ‘hobbits’ because of their short stature may have been one of oldest forms of humans, according to new research.
Since the discovery of their remains on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, debate has raged about where they fit on the evolutionary tree. There were even claims they were simply short Homo sapiens.
But now researchers in Australia claim to have finally established that Homo floresiensis – as the hobbits are formally known – was actually related to Homo habilis, which lived in Africa about 1.75 million years ago, making it one of the earliest known human species.
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