...were real! Check it out! From NPR... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4127713 Marshall
But technically you have, you see, if you play back the first 2 minutes of Sicarii backwards with gospel of thomas playing backwards over it, all under a heavy delay with chorus and phaser effect it says "My name is Benjamin, and I have been saying that hobbits were real for years"
Maybe you're thinking of "Lucy"? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/evolution/lucy.html She's earlier...more primitive ("knuckle dragging") and not as bright as these new guys. I don't think she was around the same time as "modern" people. Marshall
This does not seem too surprising. Asian Homo erectus' had to deal with Gigantopithecus in their environment. Why not a smaller species? Speciation is driven mostly by environmental change.
And...so...I could have told you that... Isolation and downsizing - good methods for evolution. Cool post - I've always been an arm-chair anthropologist.