Finally, We Know What the Flores Hobbit Looked Like

Tolkien may have been a master at creating his own worlds, but his hobbits are actually grounded in truth. Indeed, the Flores Hobbit is a tiny ancient hominin that's half-man, half-myth. Now the face of the pre-human creature has been revealed just in time for the U.S. release of the movie The Hobbit.

For the uninitiated, the Flores Hobbit origin story goes like this: Back in 2003, a pair of Aussie archaeologists unearthed partial skeleton fossils on the island of Flores, which is located a few islands east of Bali in Indonesia. Found among stone tools estimated at between 94,000 and 13,000 years old, the oddly-shaped skeletons were miniatures of what we associate with modern humans.

The remains were declared part of a new species, named Homo foresiensis. Researchers have since been debating whether or not the remains of the three-foot tall people are different enough from our own to constitute the classification. After all, maybe the hobbits' distinctive features are simply the products of a mutation that stems from being born without a thyroid

A single skull was discovered among the remains, which noted for its small cranium. But until now, our imagination was as close as we could come to envisioning what these Southeast Asian Hobbit folks looked like.

This week, an Australian anthropologist unveiled her rendition of what the hominid looked like in its heyday. The conclusion: Essentially, it resembles us, except maybe with higher cheekbones, a broader nose, and long ears.

"She's not what you'd call pretty, but she is definitely distinctive," said Dr. Susan Hayes, the anthropologist who recreated the hobbit. Hayes is a senior research fellow at Wollongong University, just south of Sydney.

By using "evidence-based facial approximation" and the latest 3D modeling software, Hayes was able to extrapolate the shape and features of the hobbit's face, using only its skull, which was unearthed nine years ago.

Hayes, who specializes in forensic science, is such so good at spinning skulls into fully formed faces that she was commissioned by Sydney police last year to reconstruct an image of the face of a woman whose remains were found decomposing in a state forest.

But Hayes' masterpiece to date is the Flores Hobbit.

"She's taken me a bit longer than I'd anticipated, has caused more than a few headaches along the way, but I'm pleased with both the methodological development and the final results," she said.

The Flores Hobbit's classification as a distinct species is still a source of debate in anthropology circles, as this report sums up nicely. But whether or not H. floresiensis is its own species or a malformed human, it's fascinating that we can finally put a face to the name.