Hobbit history gets new preface
700,000-year-old fossils from mini-hominids spark new debate over Homo floresiensis
HOBBITS OVER TIME Newly discovered fossils, including a tooth and partial jaw (right), suggest that tiny members of the human genus reached the Indonesian island of Flores around 700,000 years ago. Those ancient arrivals may have been ancestors of “hobbits” (Homo floresiensis, shown in a reconstruction, left) whose remains, found elsewhere on Flores, date to around 100,000 years ago.
Kinez Riza, reconstruction by Atelier Elisabeth Daynès