An ancient human species, affectionately referred to as “hobbits” because of their small stature, disappeared approximately 50,000 years ago. Recent research may have uncovered the reason behind their extinction.

A collaborative effort by scientists from the University of Wollongong and an international team sought to understand what led to the disappearance of Homo floresiensis from historical records.

The initial discovery of these so-called hobbits occurred in 2003 on Indonesia’s Flores Island. There, researchers found evidence that Homo floresiensis had resided in the Liang Bua cave for an impressive 140,000 years.

Their diminutive size posed a challenge to existing human evolutionary theories.

Current studies have pinpointed the cause of their eventual departure from their subterranean home—a prolonged drought that spanned several millennia.

Testing chemical records from cave stalagmites alongside the fossilised teeth of a pygmy elephant species the hobbits hunted, the researchers found a severe drought took place in the region between 61,000 and 55,000 years ago.

“The ecosystem around Liang Bua became dramatically drier around the time Homo floresiensis vanished,” UOW Honorary Professor Mike Gagan, the lead author of the study, said.

“Summer rainfall fell and river-beds became seasonally dry, placing stress on both hobbits and their prey.”

And when hobbits, faced with dwindling prey and shrinking water sources, struck out on their own, they may have met an even more implacable enemy.

While the hobbits predate the earliest evidence of modern humans on Flores, homo sapiens were travelling the Indonesian archipelago around the time their smaller cousins vanished.

“It’s possible that as the hobbits moved in search of water and prey, they encountered modern humans,” Gagan said.

“In that sense, climate change may have set the stage for their final disappearance.”