Evidence of one of the smallest — and perhaps unluckiest — early human relatives has been found in South Africa, according to a paper in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Researchers who found what they identified as a fossil of a Paranthropus robustus female, estimated she stood just under 3 feet 4.5 inches. That’s about half an inch shorter than the famous “Lucy” and 6 inches shorter than the so-called Hobbits.
Comparing those three species’ heights is interesting, but perhaps unfair, since they are separated by many millennia and not necessarily directly connected by evolution. This particular P. robustus lived about 2 million years ago and was found in South Africa. Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis member, hails from Ethiopia about 3.2 million years ago. And the hobbits, or Homo floresiensis, lived about on an island in Indonesia about 12,000 years ago.
