Perhaps as recently as 12,000 years ago, there lived a little Hobbit-like species of human called Homo floresiensis on what is now the island of Flores in Indonesia. These early humans used stone tools and fire, but stood at just about a metre tall, about the height of your average 3-year-old. It's thought that they would have hunted small elephants and even large rodents, and they probably came into contact with giant lizards such as komodo dragons. Frightening enough to a modern human, they would have seemed like actual dragons to Homo floresiensis. There is debate as to whether these are actually a separate species, or are in fact just like modern humans, but with some kind of thyroid condition that would prevent them from growing. However, the evidence is stacking up in favour of them being a completely different species. They may have developed their small stature from an evolutionary phenomenon known as island dwarfism, a process that causes an isolated population to shrink to fun-size versions of their ancestors. It is even thought that Homo floresiensis are actually connected via folk memory to the local Ebu Gogo myth. These are small, hairy, hungry creatures that live in the jungles of Indonesia, and it is possible that stories of the Homo floresiensis could have been passed down through the generations to become the ebu gogo.
