It turns out that JRR Tolkien’s fantastic World of the Hobbits Maybe not as fictitious as we once thought.

Recent excavations on Flores, a remote Indonesian island, uncovered a tiny humerus fragment, and analysis confirmed that it was evidence of a early human who was just one meter tall.

Twenty years ago, archaeologists discovered fossils of an early human species measuring 1.07 metres tall, officially known as Homo floresiensis, in a cave in Liang Bua. They were nicknamed “Hobbits”.

But these new remains indicate a figure that was 6 centimeters smaller – possibly the smallest ever.

“It was so small that it would normally be a child. But we knew that Homo floresiensis was small and had small teeth and jaws, so we had to confirm that,” says Yousuke Kaifu, a professor at the University of Tokyo who was involved in the study.

“The results were surprising. It was so obvious from the results that this was an adult animal. I had mixed feelings of joy and excitement at the clear result.”

Further research will clarify what place these individuals occupy in the evolutionary history of humans and how they came to be so small.

“What’s even more interesting is that it (Homo floresiensis) has maintained its small size. Considering that Liang Bua’s specimen is 60,000 years old, that could mean that it may have maintained its size for 600,000 years without any major changes,” says Kaifu.

He adds: “While on the continent the brain grew larger and so did the body, leading to the emergence of Homo sapiens, on the other side of the world another type of human being experienced a completely different fate.”

The full results are published in the journal Nature communication.

Check out our video above for a closer look at the fascinating discovery.