Homo floresiensis are thought to be among the last early human species to die off.

弗洛勒斯人被认为是最后灭绝的早期人类物种之一。

Denisovans and real-life Hobbits, Homo floresiensis didn't leave much behind to know them by, but Neanderthals are a different story.

丹尼索瓦人和现实生活中的霍比特人，弗洛雷斯人并没有留下太多可以了解他们的信息，但尼安德特人不一样。

Homo floresiensis stood about a meter tall with a brain no bigger than the chimpanzees. Even so, it could make sophisticated stone tools.

弗洛瑞斯人身高一米左右，大脑容量和黑猩猩差不多。但尽管如此，这种人种可以制造复杂的石质工具。

Researchers say the diminutive human species Homo floresiensis, dubbed 'the hobbit', is much older than first thought. Jonathan Amos has the story.

研究人员称，被称作霍比特人的身材矮小人种弗洛瑞斯人存在的年份比之前料想的要早得多，乔纳森·阿莫斯报道。

So, the question becomes, did Homo floresiensis evolve from Homo erectus?

那么，问题就变成了，弗洛瑞斯人是从直立人进化而来的吗？

Which brings us to the second mystery: how did Homo floresiensis evolve?

这就把我们带到了第二个谜团：弗洛瑞斯人是如何进化的？

Hominins include Neanderthals, Homo Erectus, Homo sapiens, and the hobbit-like Homo floresiensis.

人科动物包括尼安德特人、直立人、智人和类似霍比特人的弗洛勒斯人。

So scientists are pretty sure that the hominins found at Mata Menge are the ancestors of Homo floresiensis.

因此，科学家们非常确定在马塔门格发现的古人类是弗洛勒斯人的祖先。

Until we find and study more fossils, it will be hard to know for sure where Homo floresiensis belongs on the evolutionary tree.

在我们找到并研究更多的化石之前，很难确定弗洛勒斯人属于进化树的什么位置。

Researchers have debated how the hobbits - named Homo floresiensis after the Indonesian island of Flores - developed to be so small and where they fall in the human evolutionary story.

研究人员一直在争论“霍比特人”——以印度尼西亚弗洛雷斯岛命名的弗洛勒斯人——如何发展到如此之小，以及他们在人类进化故事中的地位。

There are lots of reasons to think that these are the remains of ancestors of the previous finds -- the Homo floresiensis who lived hundreds of thousands of years later.

有很多理由认为这些是之前发现的祖先的遗骸——生活在数十万年后的弗洛勒斯人。

Which is weird, because Homo erectus was about half a meter taller than Homo floresiensis, so they would have had to have shrunk VERY quickly, on an evolutionary timescale -- within about 300,000 years.

这很奇怪，因为直立人比弗洛勒斯人高大约半米， 所以他们必须非常迅速地缩小， 在进化时间尺度上— — 大约 30 万年之内。

The fossils are at least 700,000 years old, and they’re thought to belong to the ancestors of the ancient human species Homo floresiensis -- otherwise affectionately known as " Hobbits," because they were only about a meter tall.

这些化石至少有 70 万年的历史，它们被认为属于古代人类物种弗洛勒斯人的祖先——也被亲切地称为“霍比特人” ，因为他们只有大约一米高。