text: Thousands of years ago, hobbits roamed a lush, green land. They gathered food, took shelter in cozy holes in the earth, and even battled dragons. This is no fantasy epicâ€”itâ€™s the likely lifestyle of an ancient human relative that thrived on the island of Flores in Indonesia. 
   
   Discovered in 2003 in Liang Bua cave, Homo floresiensis stood about three and a half feet (1.1 meters) tall and weighed around 75 pounds (35 kilograms). Nicknamed for the diminutive heroes in J.R.R. Tolkien's famous novels, the real-life hobbits made stone tools and might have survived predatory attacks from komodo dragons. Even more exciting to anthropologists, the discovery team originally estimated that these â€śhalflingsâ€ť lived as recently as 12,000 years ago, which would mean that they outlived Neanderthals and might well have crossed paths with modern humans. 
   
   However, a fresh look at the site where the fossils were found puts a twist on the tale: The latest evidence suggests that hobbits vanished from the island far earlier than thought, casting the chances of a cross-species encounter in a new light. 
   
   â€śSince 2007, a lot more of the cave has been excavated,â€ť says study co-author Matthew Tocheri of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Researchers initially used chemical clues in the soil around the fossils to figure out when layers of sediment were laid down and thus how old the bones and tools found inside them must be. In the latest work, the team found that the layers of sediment in the cave were not all evenly deposited and so varied widely in age even at similar depths. 
   
   The new analysis, published today in Nature, asserts that the skeletal remains of H. floresiensis are more likely between 100,000 and 60,000 years old, and their stone tools date from as far back as 190,000 years to around 50,000 years ago. That suggests these evolutionary cousins did not exist for long after modern humans arrived in the region some 50,000 years ago. 
   
   â€śAt the time of the initial discovery, not enough of the older deposits had been exposed, and this led to an error in the interpretation of how the dates obtained at that time applied to the sediments that contained the hobbit remains,â€ť says Tocheri, who received funding from the National Geographic Society's Waitt Grants Program for this work. 
   
   Layered Story 
   
   While earlier investigations focused on the caveâ€™s center and eastern wall, the current study, conducted by many of the same researchers, expanded excavations between these areas and toward the rear of the cave. Older deposits in certain sections of the cave had eroded away, creating a steep slope near the entrance that became filled in with younger sediments, which caused the original misinterpretation. 
   
   To ensure that the new age estimates are accurate, the team used five independent dating methods, ranging from the uranium decay rate in bone to luminescence in soil, which measures the amount of time since sand was last exposed to sunlight. 
   
   The erosion may also explain why excavators were unable to find all the bones from the upper body of the first known hobbit specimen. According to Tocheri, â€śif the erosion had continued for just a little longer, then the entire skeleton would more than likely have been lost forever.â€ť 
   
   View Images Archaeologists excavate in Liang Bua cave, the site where the "hobbit" humans were discovered in 2003. Photograph byÂ Liang Bua Team 
   
   But age is just one of many bones of contention regarding H. floresiensis. Since the initial discovery, at least six additional hobbits have been exhumed in the cave, and biological anthropologists have been wrestling with issues ranging from how they first migrated to Indonesia, to the reasons for their diminutive size, to whether they even qualify as a unique human species. 
   
   â€śEvery finding just makes it more mysterious,â€ť says Ian Tattersall, a paleoanthropologist and emeritus curator at the American Museum of Natural History who was not involved in the study. â€śNobody could ever have imagined a hominid that looked like the one from Flores. Itâ€™s the kind of thing only nature could come up with.â€ť 
   
   Some experts contended that the hobbitâ€™s stature and small brainâ€”about one-third the size of an adult humanâ€™sâ€”mean that the fossils belong to diseased modern humans with dwarfism, Down syndrome, or microcephaly, a developmental condition that produces a small head. Though many of these theories still circulate, a 2007 analysis conducted by Tocheri revealed that the wrist bones of H. floresiensis had very little structural similarity to modern humans and were more comparable to early hominins and chimpanzees, providing strong evidence for a separate species. 
   
   RELATED: Ancient Little People Found? Watch as a scientist uncovers tiny human bones in a tropical island cave, in what could be a major discovery. 
   
   The prevailing theory is that H. floresiensis is either a descendent of a hominin that arrived on Indonesia in hobbit form, or a descendent of Homo erectus that evolved into its smaller stature once on the island. This evolutionary process, called island dwarfism, occurs when a species becomes progressively smaller to reduce its food requirements on a resource-deficient island. The excavation site at Liang Bua was littered with remnants of pygmy elephants, which adds credence to this theory. 
   
   Not a Fellowship? 
   
   Though no direct evidence from Liang Bua shows any interaction with modern humans, Tattersall still believes it is possible that these ancestral cousins could have crossed paths, perhaps with disastrous consequences. 
   
   â€śThere is this pattern where ancient kinds of Homo that have been doing perfectly well for a very long time disappear as soon as Homo sapiens shows up. For one reason or another, Homo sapiens is an insuperable competitor,â€ť says Tattersall. 
   
   And the new estimates for hobbit extinction coincide suspiciously with the arrival of modern humans in that area. 
   
   View Images The "hobbit" (left) had a much smaller head than modern humans, as seen in this comparison image. Photograph by Ira Block, Nat Geo Image Collection 
   
   â€śThe thing that I find most intriguing about the new work is its implications on how H. floresiensis went extinct,â€ť says Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonianâ€™s Human Origins Program and curator of anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History. â€śIsland populations are always under threat due to fluctuations in food supply, and it could be that H. floresiensis went extinct on its own. But it also happens to coincide with the moment in time when Homo sapiens was in the neighborhood.â€ť 
   
   Further excavations of Liang Bua and other sites on Flores could offer more clues and answer essential questions about the development, lifestyle, and extinction of this mysterious species. ||||| Homo sapiens skull (left) next to Homo floresiensis skull (right). Did our species kill off the Hobbits? Or did we interbreed and incorporate Hobbit human DNA in their genes? Scientists are still looking for the answers. 
   
   Earlier confusion about when the Hobbits and associated animals died out at Flores had to do with the depth and complexity of the cave site's geological layers. Archaeological excavations at Liang Bua can reach depths of more than 8 meters (26 feet), as shown in this photo. 
   
   Big climate shifts and volcano eruptions could have also doomed the hobbits. Here is a view of Liang Bua cave, as seen from the road out front. 'Hobbit Humans' Actually Might Not Have Been Human 
   
   While our species is suspect, there are other possible explanations for the demise of Hobbit humans. One is the tiny elephant relative, pygmy Stegodon , might have been hunted to death, leading to a devastating chain reaction. Hobbit Human Teeth Reveal Surprising History 
   
   The latest excavations at Liang Bua limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores show that the Hobbits, as well as many other animals, disappeared 38,000 years earlier than thought. Their disappearance coincides with the time that our species first arrived in the region. Photos: Faces of Our Ancestors 
   
   Adult so-called Hobbits (Homo floresiensis) only stood about 3.5 feet tall. New research determined that these diminutive humans vanished from a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia, around 50,000 years ago. What (or who) killed them off? Suspicious: Hobbits Vanish When Modern Humans Appear 
   
   In this depiction, so-called hobbit humans inhabit the lush world of the Indonesian island of Flores. 
   
   Hobbit humans, giant storks, pygmy elephants and Komodo dragons all suddenly disappeared from a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia, around 50,000 years ago, new research finds. 
   
   Did our species do them in? 
   
   The new analysis dramatically pushes back the time of disappearance of the Hobbits and associated unique animals from the site. 
   
   Photos: Excavation of a Hobbit Cave 
   
   Play Video What Did Ancient Humans Really Eat? Recent dietary fads, such as going paleo, suggest we should get back to eating the way we did before agriculture came along. But, as in much else in life, there are no easy or perfect answers when it comes to the foods we choose. 
   
   Before now, it was thought that these little archaic humans (Homo floresiensis) died out around 12,000 years ago, but new excavations at Liang Bua cave show that the Hobbits, as well as many other animals, disappeared 38,000 years earlier -- at about the exact same time our species first arrived in the wider region. 
   
   The timing, say scientists, is suspicious. 
   
   Bert Roberts of the University of Wollongong and co-author of the study, which appeared in Nature, told Discovery News: "The earliest known evidence of modern humans on Flores is from about 11,000 years ago and after, but we do know that modern humans were on other islands in the region around this time and had reached Australia by 50,000 years ago. So it is certainly a possibility to be considered, but solid evidence is needed in order to demonstrate it." 
   
   Climate shifts and volcanoes might have also led to the sudden demise of species in and around Liang Bua, co-lead author Matt Tocheri of Lakehead University and the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program added. 
   
   Photos: Faces of Our Ancestors 
   
   Another possibility is that the tiny elephant relative, pygmy Stegodon, might have been hunted to death, leading to a devastating chain reaction. 
   
   "Pygmy Stegodon is the only large-bodied herbivore known on Flores during the Late Pleistocene, and it was clearly a primary food source for these other species," Tocheri explained. "If something happened to cause the pygmy Stegodon to crash, then it more than likely would have had an adverse effect on these other species." 
   
   The confusion about when the Hobbits and associated animals died out at Flores had to do with the depth and complexity of the cave site's geological layers. 
   
   The scientists discovered that an eroded surface sloped steeply toward the cave entrance. Much younger sediments covered it during the past 20,000 years. These newer sediments were at first attributed to the Hobbit remains, but the recent and more extensive analysis disproved that idea. 
   
   Hobbit Human Teeth Reveal Surprising History 
   
   The latest excavation, instead, found that the Hobbits' skeletal remains date from 100,000 to 60,000 years ago, but stone tools consisting of hammered flakes and cores that were made by the Hobbits continue until about 50,000 years ago. 
   
   The earliest evidence of humans on Flores comes from an area called the Soa Basin, lead author Thomas Sutikna of the University of Wollongong and the National Research Center for Archaeology said. One million-year-old stone tools were found at Soa Basin and could have been made by the Hobbits or their ancestors. 
   
   The Hobbit's origins are murky, but it is suspected that they either evolved from Homo erectus, or descended from another, unknown, species of human that might have left Africa 1 to 2 million years ago. 
   
   Their skeletons, first reported in 2004, reveal that they had extremely small, chimpanzee-sized brains and that adults only stood about 3.5 feet tall. They resembled fossil human species that lived in Africa and Asia 1 to 3 million years ago.
target: – New research suggests it's possible ancient humans are responsible for killing off Indonesia's hobbits (an urge no doubt felt by modern humans who sat through the extended edition of The Hobbit). Starting in 2003 when their remains were first discovered on the island of Flores, scientists believed Homo floresiensis—who averaged 3.5 feet tall and 75 pounds—lived until as recently as 12,000 years ago, National Geographic reports. But a new study published this week in Nature found they actually died off sometime between 60,000 and 50,000 years ago—right around the time humans showed up in the area. "The exact cause of the demise of the hominids … is not yet understood, but in my view, may be related to the appearance in the area of the most aggressive of all hominin species, Homo sapiens, modern humans," one expert tells Discovery. Discovery calls the timing of the hobbits' disappearance "suspicious," but the study found no proof they were wiped out by humans, and further excavations on Flores are needed. Other possible causes for the extinction of Homo floresiensis include volcanoes, overhunting of pygmy elephants, and climate change. But it's not just their death that is mysterious. Scientists still don't know why these real-life hobbits were so small, how they got to Flores, or if they're even a different species. Some experts have posited they are actually humans suffering from dwarfism or Down syndrome. (Meanwhile, ancient humans having sex with Neanderthals may be why we have allergies.)