Who Were the Hobbits?

         The hobbits were a species of primitive human officially dubbed, "Homo floresiensis" and nicknamed, "the hobbits" or "Flores Man".  They were early people of the Homo genus that lived alongside the Cro-Magnons.  Ancient fossils found date back to 38,000 - 18,000 years old, but Homo floresiensis may have survived up to 12,000 years ago.
         Flores Man was among the smallest species of human at about 3.5 feet tall.  Scientists debate about why this was.  There are a few different theories that try to explain the size of the hobbits - island dwarfing and microlepsy.  Island dwarfing isn't very rare.  When mammals that are part of another species live on an island, they adapt into smaller sizes.  This is because there is a limited amount of resources on the island and smaller predator populations.  The second theory, microlepsy, suggests that Homo floresiensis were originally a part of the Homo erectus species - just that the fossils found had developed a physical disorder that made their skulls and brains abnormally small.  Other scientists contradict this theory because Homo erectus had a very modern body, not only in skull size and brain capacity, but in arm length and foot development.  For the hobbit to be a Homo erectus with microlepsy, they would also have to undergo evolution backwards.
          More scientists believe that there is not enough evidence to draw any conclusions about the hobbits.  They say that what we have found could be compared to archaeologists in the future finding the tall bones of a basketball player, or the smaller bones of a horse jockey, and think that the entire human species is that tall or that short.  They think that we need to find more remains to be sure about anything.
          The most complete skeleton of Homo floresiensis was a 30 year old woman.  She had a primitive face with a protruding brow and cheek with no chin.  Her wrists were arranged like a chimpanzee's, which might have restricted the hand motions needed to make tools or use tools, to a lower level.  This ancient woman's shoulders shrugged forward, and her feet were long and flat which tells us that Flores Man was definitely not as developed as we are now - unless our lady had some strange condition that she had, but no one else did.
          Many researchers argue against the fact that Homo floresiensis was a tool maker, but some evidence has been found to contradict that statement.  Inside the cave where hobbit fossils were found, many tools for different purposes such as digging, butchering, and hunting were discovered.  There were small stone points that may have been used to place at the ends of wooden spears, and some scientists say that Flores Man's chimp-like arms may have been up to 4 times stronger than Homo sapiens.  That strength could have helped make and use tools.
          All in all, scientists haven't really decided exactly who the hobbits were, but they do have some pretty good guesses.