Tiny "hobbit-like" humans discovered in Indonesia were once of normal (to us) size but shrank after getting trapped on an island, scientists now believe. For more than a decade experts have argued over the origins of the Homo floresiensis whose remains were first found on the island of Flores in 2004, dating from around 100,000 years ago.The hominin was little more than 1m tall and some experts argued that its short stature was the result of Down's syndrome or even microcephaly, which leads to a small head.Now palaeoanthropologists have found the ancestors of the hobbits, dating from 700,000 years ago, and they were even smaller, around 0.9m in height.Crucially, they bear a striking resemblance to Homo erectus, leading scientists to conclude that the larger hominids spread to Indonesia then got trapped on Flores and became victims of "insular dwarfism" - becoming smaller because of a lack of food and other resources.Dwarfed populations of elephants, tigers, mammoths and even dinosaurs have all been found in the fossil record, or recorded by explorers and naturalists."All the fossils are indisputably hominin and they appear to be remarkably similar to those of Homo floresiensis," said Yousuke Kaifu, one of the researchers from the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, Japan."The morphology of the fossil teeth also suggests that this human lineage represents a dwarfed descendant of early Homo erectus that somehow got marooned on the island of Flores."What is truly unexpected is that the size of the finds indicates that Homo floresiensis had already obtained its small size by at least 700000 years ago."The earlier hobbits were discovered at Mata Menge, a site 70km from Liang Bua, where the first Homo floresiensis remains were uncovered 12 years ago.One fossil fragment came from an adult jawbone 20% smaller than its smallest more recent counterpart.The new finds also include six teeth, among them two milk teeth belonging to infants.Gert van den Bergh, from the University of Wollongong in Australia, whose team uncovered the new fossils, said: "This find has important implications for our understanding of early human dispersal and evolution in the region and quashes once and for all any doubters that believe Homo floresiensis was merely a sick modern human."The scientists believe the ancient hobbits lived in hot, dry savannah-like grassland with a wetland component.Simple stone tools similar to those associated with Homo floresiensis were discovered in the same sandstone rock layer as the fossils. The research was published in the journal Nature. - ©The Daily Telegraph..