How a Hungry Komodo Dragon Led Scientists to Determine Our Small, Hobbit-Like Cousins Probably Weren’t That Smart After All

New research indicates “Homo floresiensis” probably wasn’t hunting big game or using fire on Flores Island, suggesting the small-brained species wasn’t quite as “behaviorally advanced” as once hypothesized

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

July 6, 2026

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At least 60,000 years ago, a group of petite early humans called Homo floresiensis lived on a remote island in what is now Indonesia. These diminutive individuals, which stood a little more than three feet tall, had skulls that were about the size of a grapefruit and brains that were a little bigger than those of chimpanzees. However, since the species was first identified more than two decades ago, scientists have uncovered evidence that seems to suggest they were relatively intelligent.

New research challenges that idea. H. floresiensis, nicknamed the “hobbits” after J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth inhabitants, may not have been as advanced as previously thought, researchers report in a new paper published July 3 in the journal Science Advances.

In 2003, scientists discovered a nearly complete H. floresiensis skeleton on Flores Island in a cave known as Liang Bua. Within the same cavern, they also found stone tools and the bones of a small, extinct elephant relative known as Stegodon florensis insularis. Stegodon, which scientists think was the only large herbivore on the island while H. floresiensis was alive, weighed around 1,260 pounds and measured roughly five feet tall at the shoulders.

Some of the bones bore cut marks and other “smaller animal remains” appeared charred, which scientists interpreted as evidence that H. floresiensis was capable of hunting big game and controlling fire—behaviors that suggest the species must have been fairly intelligent. This idea was further supported by an analysis of H. floresiensis’ skull, which suggested the species had an unusually large frontal polar region, an area of the brain often associated with higher cognitive processing.

However, some scientists questioned whether the “hobbits” were truly as cognitively sophisticated as they seemed. They wondered if the dwarf elephants found in the cave had instead been killed by Komodo dragons, a large, predatory lizard that lives on several Indonesian islands, including Flores.

To test out this theory, scientists fed a dead goat to a Komodo dragon named Rinca housed at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia.

“I wanted to see if we really could show that H. floresiensis was the hunter that it had been portrayed as for decades,” lead author Elizabeth Grace Veatch, a paleoanthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, tells CNN’s Ashley Strickland.

Once Rinca was done eating, researchers compared the goat bones to the Stegodon bones found in Liang Bua cave associated with H. floresiensis.

They found numerous Komodo dragon tooth scores on the Stegodon bones from Liang Bua cave. What’s more, the reptiles’ bites seemed to be concentrated around the meatiest parts of the animals’ bodies, like the shoulders and hips. By contrast, they mostly found H. floresiensis’ cutmarks on other, less meaty regions, such as the skull, spine and feet. This suggests H. floresiensis probably didn’t have first dibs on the carcasses and, instead, were merely scavenging the Komodo dragons’ leftovers.

The scientists also analyzed the Stegodon bones found in the cave for signs they’d been burned or charred. Just one of the more than 3,000 Stegodon bone fragments appeared to have been exposed to fire—and scientists think that bone was probably heated up by Homo sapiens who inhabited the cave later, after H. floresiensis went extinct.

They also investigated the bones of rodents recovered from layers associated with H. floresiensis, as well as later layers associated with H. sapiens. Not one of the more than 4,000 rodent bones with ties to H. floresiensis layers showed signs of heating, whereas one-fifth of the rodent remains with links to H. sapiens appeared to have been cooked.

Together, the findings seem to suggest H. floresiensis did not use fire or hunt big game. That conclusion makes sense, given the species’ brain capacity and body weight. “In a sense, the new findings bring Homo floresiensis more in line with what we know about other small-bodied hominins, such as Australopithecines,” Martin Porr, an archaeologist at the University of Western Australia who was not involved with the research, tells NewScientist’s James Woodford.

Though H. floresiensis may have been less cognitively advanced than previously thought, they were still “quite adaptively successful,” Michael Petraglia, an anthropologist at Griffith University who was not involved with the research, tells National Geographic’s Paige Madison. Even without using fire or hunting large game, the species managed to survive “changing environments and challenging circumstances” on the island for nearly a million years, he adds.

The findings also add more fodder to the debate around H. floresiensis’ ancestry. Did the hobbits descend from a larger, more cognitively advanced species like Homo erectus, which then evolved to become smaller and simpler because of insular dwarfism on Flores Island? Or, did they arise from an older, more primitive species that already had small bodies and brains—possibly, Homo habilis or Australopithecus?

For now, “both options remain possible,” Porr tells NewScientist. “It will require more research on and around Flores to clarify this.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.