Homo floresiensis, popularly called the “hobbits,” may have interacted with the ancestors of modern humans. (Credit: daderot/Wikimedia Commons)

60,000 years ago, diminutive beings dwelled on the Indonesian island of Flores, alongside komodo dragons, pygmy stegodons and real-life rodents of unusual size. The now-extinct humans — known scientifically as Homo floresiensis, and popularly as the hobbits — stood less than 4 feet tall, with brains one third the size of living people. Yet, they made