August 7, 2024 4:15 PM

Tiny arm bone unlocks mystery of Indonesia’s extinct ‘Hobbit’ people

When researchers excavated fossilized fragments of a rod-shaped bone 3-1/2 inches (88 mm) long at a site called Mata Menge on Indonesia's Flores island, the pieces initially were bagged and marked "crocodile bone fragment?" It was only later that they realized what they actually were. These fragments, dating to about 700,000 years ago, of the upper arm bone, called the humerus, comprise the smallest limb bone known for any member of the human evolutionary lineage - an adult individual of the di...