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 Researchers on Wednesday said they recalculated the age of bones
of the species, named Homo floresiensis, found inside a Flores cave,
and determined it disappeared about 50,000 years ago rather than
12,000 years ago as previously estimated.
The Hobbit's discovery in 2003 created a scientific sensation. Homo
floresiensis stood 3-1/2 feet tall (106 cm), possessed a small,
chimpanzee-sized brain, used stone tools and may have hunted pygmy
elephants.
The researchers said there is not yet direct evidence the Hobbit
people encountered Homo sapiens but noted that our species was
already on other islands in the region at around that time and had
reached Australia by about 50,000 years ago.
Geochronologist Bert Roberts of Australia's University of Wollongong
said it was possible Homo sapiens played a role in the Hobbit's
extinction and the issue would be a major focus of further research.
 "To me, the question is, 'Would the Hobbits have become extinct if
humans had never made landfall on Flores?' And the answer is 'no.'
We were likely the decisive factor in their demise, but we still
need to find hard evidence to back up this hunch," Roberts said.
Numerous animals disappeared on Flores at the same time, said
paleoanthropologist Matt Tocheri of Canada's Lakehead University and
the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. These included
small elephants, giant marabou storks, vultures and large Komodo
dragon lizards.
After fresh excavations from 2007 to 2014 improved the understanding
of the cave site, the scientists re-evaluated the ages of sediment
containing Homo floresiensis remains and the actual bones.
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The Hobbits' skeletal remains were 60,000 to 100,000 years old while
their stone tools were 50,000 to 190,000 years old, said
archaeologist Thomas Sutikna of the University of Wollongong and
Indonesia's National Research Centre for Archaeology.
Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago and
later trekked to other parts of the world, encountering other human
species like Neanderthals who went extinct not long afterward.
The previous assessment that the Hobbits had lived as recently as
12,000 years ago indicated they had survived for perhaps 40,000
years after our species reached the region. The new results show
this was not the case.
The research appears in the journal Nature.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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