Shocking discovery: Did the Flores man not go extinct after all?

The island of Flores has guarded one of science’s greatest mysteries for decades: could it be that the Flores man, the tiny human species often referred to as “hobbits”, did not actually die out completely? Anthropologist Gregory Forth has been collecting evidence for over forty years – and based on accounts from local people, it’s possible that these small, ape-like humanoids may still live deep in the island’s jungles.

Flores, located in Indonesia, has long been a unique site for archaeological and anthropological research. According to the scientific community, the extremely small-bodied human ancestor known as Homo floresiensis lived there around 50,000 years ago, though they are believed to be long extinct. Gregory Forth, however, believes that a small population of the species may still be alive today, continuing to survive in the island’s jungles, writes Popular Mechanics.

Could hobbits still live on Flores today?

Forth has been studying this mysterious species for nearly four decades, often compared to the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings series. He began his research at the University of Oxford, later continuing his work at the University of Alberta in Canada.

He summarised his decades of research in his 2022 book, Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid, and spoke in detail about his findings in an interview with The Debrief.

The professor was particularly interested in the lai ho’a, a small humanoid said by the Nage and Lio communities to still inhabit the region today. According to the tribes’ accounts, these beings walk upright, but are hairier than humans and have distinctly ape-like facial features.

Forth also reported that several members of these tribes claimed to have encountered Flores people in the jungle.

The Flores man may have been extremely small

The professor was particularly astonished when, in 2003, fossils were discovered that matched previous descriptions of the Flores man perfectly. Reconstructions by palaeoanthropologists almost exactly reflected what locals had described to him a year earlier.

Based on the remains, the Flores man may have been no more than 106 centimetres tall, an adaptation suited to the island’s environment. This phenomenon, known as island dwarfism, wasn’t unique to Homo floresiensis – over millions of years, many mammals on Flores evolved to be much smaller than their mainland counterparts. One such example was the pygmy elephant, which the hobbits are thought to have hunted.

According to Nature, in 2024 researchers excavated another cave on Flores containing more remains, including a particularly surprising adult upper arm bone. It may have belonged to an individual even smaller than previously known – possibly no taller than 100 centimetres.

This humerus turned out to be the smallest ever found among human fossils, and is likely from an older variant of the species.

Brain size and tooth size are connected

The brain of Homo floresiensis was relatively small, while its teeth were surprisingly large. This is notable because, throughout evolution, changes in tooth size correspond with changes in brain size, writes ScienceAlert.

Wisdom teeth, for example, became proportionally smaller as brain volume increased. But in the case of Flores man, both remained very small, suggesting that the growth of the central nervous system may have slowed during early childhood.

They may be humankind’s closest relatives

For a long time, researchers had very few remains to work with, leaving the origins of this hominin shrouded in mystery. They were thought to be descendants of Homo erectus or an even older human species. Today, however, the prevailing view is that they are most closely related to Homo sapiens.

According to Forth’s book, these ape-like humans may have survived at least into the early modern era, and the professor believes the credible local testimonies suggest that a small group of them could still be alive today.

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