Scientists discover how real-life ‘hobbits’ went extinct: study

They came up a little short.

A small archaic hominid known as the “hobbit” might have died out around 50,000 years ago after declining rainfall levels forced them to compete with modern humans, among other factors, researchers suggested. A study detailing their extinction was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

“New evidence suggests a period of extreme drought starting about 61,000 years ago may have contributed to the hobbits’ disappearance,” study co-author Nick Scroxton, of the University College Dublin, wrote in a piece for The Conversation.

Dubbed Homo floresiensis, the bite-sized bipeds were initially discovered in 2003 in the Liang Bua cave on Flores — a small volcanic island located some 300 miles east of Java. It’s yet unclear when these hominids came on the scene, although their oldest known remains have been dated back 100,000 years, while their most ancient implements are nearly twice that old.

They stood just over three feet tall and boasted large flat feet, earning them the moniker “hobbits” after the short Shire-dwelling protagonists from the “Lord Of The Rings” books.

Since their discovery, scientists have been trying to determine how the species lived — and died off.

The aforementioned researchers suspected that the hobbits’ extirpation had to do with a drought in the region after analysis of a stalagmite in Liang Bua revealed a serious decline in rainfall, Livescience reported.

By analyzing the cave protuberance’s rate of growth and ratio of magnesium to calcium carbonate — a clear indicator of a water shortage — scientists were able to deduce that the rainfall declined from 61.4 inches 6,000 years ago to 40 inches 61,000 years ago.

This paltry precipitation rate would continue through 50,000 years ago, per the study.

If that wasn’t apocalyptic enough, a nearby volcano erupted around that time, blanketing the region in debris, further leaving the hobbits knee-high and dry.

The scientists also examined the teeth of a Stegodon — a now-extinct pygmy elephant that was the hobbits’ primary prey item — and found that the populations plummeted before disappearing following the eruption.

From this, they postulated that rainfall reductions had impacted the elephants’ numbers, forcing them to migrate to the island’s coasts with the hobbits hot on their heels.

“We suspect that if the Stegodon population were declining due to reduced river flow then they would have migrated away to a more consistent water source,” Scroxton told Live Science in an email. “So it makes sense for the hobbits to have followed.”

By moving to the coasts, the hominids possibly encountered much larger Homo sapiens that were expanding in the region, potentially fomenting interspecies conflict as they went toe-to-toe for resources.

Julien Luoys, a paleontologist at Griffith University in Australia who was not involved in the research, said that many of the problems stemmed from the island’s limited space and finite number of environments.

“When things get drier, an animal can’t simply move off the island, and any potential refugia they could use are going to either disappear or become very crowded, very quickly,” he said.

Although it’s yet unclear if competition, disease or even predation pushed the hobbits to the brink.

“Whatever the ultimate cause, our study provides the framework for future studies to examine the extinction of the iconic H. floresiensis in the context of major climate change,” concluded Scroxton. “The underlying role of freshwater availability in the demise of one of our human cousins reminds us that humanity’s history is a fragile experiment in survival, and how shifting rainfall patterns can have profound impacts.”