In 2003, a startling discovery on the Indonesian island of Flores surprised and fascinated the paleoanthropological world, and was headlines in the mainstream news as well. A diminutive human was discovered, Homo floresiensis, and nicknamed "the Hobbit". There was immediately controversy about this discovery. On one side, the discoverers were designating this as a new species. Stone tools and the processed bones of an extinct dwarf elephant, Stegadon, were found in association with the bones of this new hominid. The site was dated to as young as 18,000 years BP to as far back as nearly 100,000 years BP. Others argued that this was an adult suffering from microcephaly.
However, dwarfism and gigantism are commonly selected for on islands, cut off and isolated. Flores Island is the home of both phenomenon. The Komodo Dragon, Varanus komodoensis lives not just on the next door island of Komodo, but also Flores. It is an example of gigantism, and is the largest species of lizard in the world. Also on Flores, there are two examples of dwarfism. The elephant Stegadon was reduced to the size of a cow and Homo floresiensis was reduced in size as well.
The academic consensus today is that this diminutive species is closely related to Homo erectus or, probably, Homo ergaster. The latter most resembles H. floresiensis in size, morphology, and tool technology.
One wonders what other surprises may be found on the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos in the future.