In 2004, archaeologists made a spectacular discovery in a cave on the small, 354-kilometer-long volcanic island of Flores, east of Java in Indonesia. They found the remains of six tiny people, shorter than human pygmies by 0.5 to 0.6 meters. One female stood only 1 meter tall and weighed just 28.7 kilograms when she died at about the age of 30 years.

These “hobbits,” as they were nicknamed, walked on two legs and hunted the dwarf Stegodon (a now extinct elephantlike mammal), as well as giant rats and Komodo dragons that today grow up to 3 meters long. The little people lived on their island refuge for at least 78,000 years (from about 95,000 to 17,000 years ago). A cooling climate had lowered sea level to 55 meters below what it is today, but even when sea level fell to its lowest point during the last ice age, about 21,500 years ago, there was still a 24-kilometer sea crossing to the island. Other land mammals were unable to make the crossing.