The extinct archaic human species Homo floresiensis, formerly of Indonesia, left behind fully-grown adult skeletons that famously measure at a diminutive height of three and a half feet tall, which compelled scientists to naturally nickname them “hobbits,” after the iconically pint-sized “Lord of the Rings” creatures.

These hobbits mysteriously disappeared from their primary habitat — not the Shire, but the Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores — about 50,000 years ago. Now, an international team of researchers have published a new paper in the Nature science journal Communications Earth & Environment with a new theory of what led to their demise: an extreme drought that lasted for years, they say, that most likely forced them to flee and possibly led to their extinction.

“The ecosystem

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