"Hobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years, they can still surprise you at a pinch."  | Shutterstock

August 8, 2024

Returning to this week’s theme of finding long-lost things after a sports interlude, we go back even further in time: about 700,000 years, to an island of Indonesia where “hobbits” used to live. 

Scientists recently discovered the smallest humerus (the upper arm bone) of an adult hominid ever, so small that it can fit in the palm of your hand. It belonged to a member of Homo floresiensis, a unique branch of our ancient ancestors that evolved separately on the island of Flores. They were nicknamed hobbits because of their diminutive size — and perhaps more so because they were discovered around the time the “Lord of the Rings” films were being released. But this discovery suggests adults could be far smaller than any Baggins, Took or Brandybuck. 

I personally don’t care for the nickname, nor do I think actual hobbits would. Homo floresiensis look more like upright baby chimpanzees in some artists’ conceptions. They don’t look like they would ever wear a waistcoat, smoke pipeweed or cook potatoes. They did, however, probably have some very hairy, padded feet. 

Also, the Shire was in what is now England. That’s not my opinion, by the way. I bet you didn’t know that. Here’s some more stuff I bet you didn’t know, from RTO Insider.

Tea is at 4!  

Michael Brooks

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