Modern men ‘lived alongside Hobbits’

A NEW species of ‘human’ that lived alongside man 50,000 years ago has been found in a cave.

At less than 4ft tall and with curved hands and toes the Hobbit-like Homo luzonensis resembled one of our ancestors from millions of years ago.

So its discovery on the island of Luzon in the Philippines contradicts the idea that human beings are the result of a neat straight line of development.

Experts once thought it was ‘upright man’, or Homo erectus, which came ‘ out of Africa’ and spread across Europe, leading to the Neanderthals and us.

But Homo luzonensis suggests humans physically closer to the apes may have left also, ending up on islands where they shrank in size. And if they still climbed trees while also walking on two feet, it suggests humans much simpler than us may have been capable of seafaring.

However, they may also simply have drifted to the island on natural ‘rafts’ of coastal vegetation.

Homo luzonesis was named after seven teeth and six bones, thought to have come from two adults and a child, were found.

Dr Florent Détroit, the study’s lead author from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, said: ‘We continue to realise that a few thousands of years back in time, Homo sapiens was definitely not alone on Earth.’

Modern humans may never have met them, although experts say there is a chance we might have killed them off. Homo luzonensis is thought to be smaller than the only other ‘ dwarf’ hominin in Asia, which was found 15 years ago and nicknamed the Hobbit.