As recently as 50,000 years ago, humans about 1.1 metres tall lived on the Indonesian island of Flores.

60,000 BC · 50,000 BC · apart: 10,000 years

Nicknamed 'hobbits', Homo floresiensis descended from settlers who arrived a million years earlier and probably shrank.

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The event

• The 'hobbits' of Floresc. 60,000 BC · Liang Bua cave, Flores. In 2003 a cave on Flores yielded the skeleton of an adult about 1.1 metres tall. Nicknamed 'hobbits', Homo floresiensis lived on the island until modern humans arrived some 50,000 years ago, and probably shrank through island dwarfism, like many island animals.

Prehistory

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