The remains of a group of one-meter tall people who lived as recently as 12,000 years ago were found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003. Researchers have been examining the fossils ever since, seeking clues to where the Flores people fall on the human family tree and how they became so small. A new analysis by Kieran McNulty of the University of Minnesota and Karen Baab of Stony Brook University adds to growing agreement that these so-called "hobbits" were a distinct species of the Homo genus that lived concurrently with modern humans.
