Hobbits, or Homo floresiensis, was a species that stood just under four feet tall and they weighed 75 pounds. The hobbits lived on Flores in Indonesia, and they created stone tools that were discovered by scientists.
In 2003, the species was
discovered in Liang Bua cave, and scientists initially thought the species lived just 12,000 years ago. However, evidence suggests that around the same time modern humans arrived, the species may have disappeared, which was about 50,000 years ago.
Bert Roberts, co-author of
the study, said that evidence of modern humans in Flores is from around 11,000 years ago and after, but they know that there were modern humans on other islands in the area, and they had reached Australia by 50,000 years ago. Roberts
added that more solid evidence would be needed in order to demonstrate it.
Matt Tocheri, another co-author of the study, said the overlap does suggest that modern humans may have played a role in the
disappearance of the hobbits. As of now, it's only a theory, but there may be another unknown cause that resulted in their demise.