Hunt for ‘Littlefoot’ as expert reveals apelike humanoid could STILL be roaming Earth despite vanishing 50,000-years-ago
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SCIENTISTS believe that a species of hobbit people thought to have vanished 50,000 years ago could still be roaming the earth. The ancient humans, that stood a tiny 3.5 feet tall, were first discovered through skeletons found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003.
![[Homo floresiensis fossils were first discovered in 2003 on the Indonesian island of Flores]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/homo-floresiensis-see-national-story-318318378.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
They walked around on two legs like humans, but were hairier and with a more ape-like face. Experts initially believed the tiny people were from a shrunken variety of our own species, Homo sapiens. However, it was later concluded to be a different species entirely named after the island on which they lived - Homo floresiensis.
![[Their skeletons are very similar to ours, only much shorter]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/homo-floresiensis-see-national-story-318317803.jpg?strip=all&w=518)
Now, a leading expert has said he believes the little humanoid creatures could still be pattering around on the island. Gregory Forth has studied Homo floresiensis for four decades, beginning at University of Oxford and then the University of Alberta. He wrote a book on the species in 2022: Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid.
![[A comparison of the humerus bone of two different Homo floresiensis skeletons found]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2024-indicates-earlier-homo-floresiensis-923055927.jpg?strip=all&w=945)
He recently told The Debrief that he had spoken to people on the island who claimed to have seen miniature people, known as “lai ho’a”, before the first fossils were unearthed. “What really interested me in the lai ho’a is that it was small, like the figures in Nage country, but it was reckoned still to be alive,” Forth said.
