--- title: The Hobbit: Out of Africa description: A very small human ancestor made a very big splash back in 2004, when researchers discovered the remains of Homo floresiensis, a 3-ft., prehuman "hobbit,"... canonical: https://time.com/archive/6933416/the-hobbit-out-of-africa/ author: Jennifer Pinkowski article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2009-04-21T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-22T07:27:34.291Z article:section: Health og:title: The Hobbit: Out of Africa og:description: A very small human ancestor made a very big splash back in 2004, when researchers discovered the remains of Homo floresiensis, a 3-ft., prehuman "hobbit,"... og:url: https://time.com/archive/6933416/the-hobbit-out-of-africa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte707f8b85c81686c/698a4dc986f68e69b06f4458/360_hobbit_skull_0417.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 360 og:image:height: 203 og:image:alt: 360_hobbit_skull_0417.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Hobbit: Out of Africa twitter:description: A very small human ancestor made a very big splash back in 2004, when researchers discovered the remains of Homo floresiensis, a 3-ft., prehuman "hobbit,"... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte707f8b85c81686c/698a4dc986f68e69b06f4458/360_hobbit_skull_0417.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # The Hobbit: Out of Africa > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=4aa6dc52-7849-4661-93ef-56a5a0465b2f&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Jennifer Pinkowski](https://time.com/author/jennifer-pinkowski/) Apr 21, 2009 4:00 AM UTC  An Indonesian scientist holds the skull of the newly discovered remains of Indonesia's hobbit-sized humans in Jakarta. An Indonesian scientist holds the skull of the newly discovered remains of Indonesia's hobbit-sized humans in Jakarta. Beawiharta / Reuters by [Jennifer Pinkowski](https://time.com/author/jennifer-pinkowski/) Apr 21, 2009 4:00 AM UTC A very small human ancestor made a very big splash back in 2004, when researchers discovered the remains of _Homo floresiensis_, a 3-ft., [prehuman “hobbit,” in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores](https://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1268552,00.html). The origin of the species and the route it took to Flores have been much discussed since then. Earlier this month, researchers presented work at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, in Chicago, suggesting that _H. floresiensis_ may have left Africa a full million years earlier than any other hominids were thought to have ventured out from the home continent. ([Read “The Riddle of the Hobbit.”](https://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1399614,00.html)) The new theory comes from recent analyses of the interior of the skull of Flo — as some call the 18,000-year-old fossil remains. A young female, Flo exhibits features that bear an uncanny resemblance to skulls from the hominid genus _Australopithecus,_ which lived in Africa from roughly 4 million to 1.5 million years ago. The best-known australopithecene fossils are the 3.2 million–year-old _A. afarensis_ Lucy, discovered in Ethiopia, and the 3 million–year-old _A. africanus_ Taung Child, unearthed in South Africa. ([See pictures of South Africa, fifteen years on.](https://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1889833,00.html)) The problem is, the only early hominids found outside Africa are _Homo erectus,_ the earliest of which date to 1.9 million years ago — about a million years after Lucy, Taung and their ilk. If Flo so closely resembles Lucy and Taung, her ancestors may have emigrated from Africa back when those famous kin were still around. Florida State University skull-morphology specialist Dean Falk and an international team of researchers compared Flo’s skull not only to skulls of other prehuman species, but also to those of modern humans, some with normal development and others with microcephaly, an abnormal smallness of the head. That last comparison was critical, since some researchers have suggested that _H. floresiensis_ represents not a separate species but is instead a modern human stricken with microcephaly or similar illnesses. But the “sick hobbit” hypothesis has been unable to gain much traction. Falk and the others identified seven specific features of Flo’s brain that seem to be more-evolved versions of key characteristics of the much older _A. africanus_ brain. “Over the entire cerebral cortex, there are advanced features that make it look like a very fancy brain,” says Falk. “_H. floresiensis_ was clearly there a long time, because it developed its own features.” Overall, Flo’s brain shows the global neural reorganization that’s a mark of advancing intelligence. What’s striking about this relative sophistication is that it developed in such a small brain case. A prime indicator of increasing human intelligence has long been thought to be increasing brain size. However, Falk says, the hobbit’s skull is a bit of a mishmash of characteristics in terms of who it resembles. “Its brain sorts with africanus, yet its outside skull features look like _Homo erectus_,” she says. But William Jungers, one of the primary hobbit researchers, says the similarities to erectus seem to end at the neck. Analysis of various anatomical features suggests that the new species has an overall body plan that looks more ancient than that. “It’s not identical to _Australopithecus_,” Jungers says, “but it resembles it in limb proportions, the shape of the bony pelvis, the hands.” Adds paleoanthropologist Donald Johansen, who discovered the _Australopithecus_ Lucy: “It is a possibility they got out of Africa earlier than we ever thought. If they were isolated on an island and didn’t have gene flow from other populations, it would make sense that they retained ancient features like small stature and small heads.” Upcoming excavations of Flores spearheaded by Mike Morwood, the lead researcher of the Australian-Indonesian team that first unearthed the bones, may help answer the essential question, as Falk puts it, “When did the first \[hobbit ancestors\] get to the island, and what did they look like?” [See TIME’s pictures of the week.](https://www.time.com/time/picturesoftheweek) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6933416/the-hobbit-out-of-africa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6933416/the-hobbit-out-of-africa/"},"headline":"The Hobbit: Out of Africa","datePublished":"2009-04-21T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-22T07:27:34.291Z","description":"A very small human ancestor made a very big splash back in 2004, when researchers discovered the remains of Homo floresiensis, a 3-ft., prehuman \"hobbit,\"...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6933416/the-hobbit-out-of-africa/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte707f8b85c81686c/698a4dc986f68e69b06f4458/360_hobbit_skull_0417.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Pinkowski","url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-pinkowski/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte707f8b85c81686c/698a4dc986f68e69b06f4458/360_hobbit_skull_0417.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"360_hobbit_skull_0417.jpg","caption":"An Indonesian scientist holds the skull of the newly discovered remains of Indonesia's hobbit-sized humans in Jakarta.","creditText":"Beawiharta / Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6933416/the-hobbit-out-of-africa/","name":"The Hobbit: Out of Africa"}}]}] ```