“The answer is a clear enough ‘no’ that I’m done with it.”

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But as often happens in science, the answer to one question raises new ones. The study shows that at least twice in ancient history, humans and their relatives (known as hominins) arrived on Flores and then grew shorter.

And not just humans: Other research has shown that elephants also arrived on Flores twice, and both times the species evolved into dwarves. So what mysterious power does this island have to shrink the body?

When the fossils of Homo floresiensis first came to light, many researchers hoped they might still hold fragments of DNA. They were encouraged by the initial dating of the fossils — an estimated age of perhaps just 13,000 years.

DNA analysis might have settled the debate over how Homo floresiensis fits into the hominin family tree. Some researchers argued that the bones simply belonged to a modern human with a growth disorder.