Scientists Prove that Hobbits Really Did Walk the Earth

Have you ever found yourself thinking about the hobbits from Lord of the Rings and wondering whether they would look just like humans? You may have questioned whether you could be friends with one?

Yeah, you’re not alone. I think it is safe to say the idea has crossed the minds of many of us who are fans of the Lord of the Rings, even if just for a few seconds.

Thankfully, with improving technology and our higher level of natural understanding, scientists have discovered that hobbits were actually real. These hobbits lived 60,000 years ago in the area we today know as Indonesia, and the resemblance might be more similar than we could have imagined.

The informative study, published in the journal Nature, describes hobbits as our 3-foot-tall cousins with long arms, small brains, human-like teeth, and chimp-sized bodies. They had the ability to create small tools for survival and the knowledge to work with fire.

Fossils from the small hobbits, technically known as “homo floresiensis,” were originally found in a cave on the island of Flores.

Scientists believe the hobbits were not always so small. One theory suggests they were ancestors of the “homo erectus” species and shrank in stature due to the small island’s limited resources. Other scientists believe they were once no different from modern humans and simply had an abnormality, like microcephaly, which modified their head and body size.

Island dwarfism is nothing new and is possible for both animals and humans. During some recent island excavations, scientists discovered the fossil of a dwarf elephant.