Hobbits Among Us

Do relic hominins exist on Earth today? This is an artist’s concept of one that might. It is Homo floresiensis, aka hobbits. Image via paleo-artist Katrina Kenny of Echunga, Australia.

Anthropologist Gregory Forth at the University of Alberta in Canada authored a controversial opinion piece in The Scientist on April 18, 2022. In it, he claims that a relic population of elf-like ancient hominins might still roam the jungles of a remote Indonesian island.

The discovery of the remains of Homo floresiensis in 2003 – a tiny hominin standing just 3.5 feet (106 cm) tall and weighing only 66 pounds (30 kg) – caught the scientific world completely by surprise. Scientists announced the initial find in 2004. 

Subsequent work on the Pacific island of Flores unearthed fossils of an entirely new species, now known colloquially as “the hobbit” or Flores man. H. floresiensis dates to between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago. 

Tools of the diminutive people appear in the fossil record from 190,000 to 50,000 years ago, meaning the so-called hobbits shared their world with modern humans.

According to Forth, the hobbits may still hide today in the lush rain forests of Flores, alongside the ravenous Komodo dragon.  READ MORE...