Now a new study suggests ancestors of the " hobbits" were even shorter.

现在一项新研究表明，“霍比特人”的祖先甚至更矮。

What was that feeling stepping into the shoes, the hobbit feet, of Frodo for the first time?

- 第一次穿上 Frodo 的鞋子，霍比特人的脚是什么感觉？

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。

Scientists need more study, and more fossils, to learn the hobbits' place in human evolution, said Matt Tocheri of Canada's Lakehead University.

加拿大湖首大学的马特·托切里表示，科学家需要更多的研究和更多的化石来了解“霍比特人”在人类进化中的地位。

In 2016, researchers suspected the earlier relatives could be shorter than the hobbits after studying a jawbone and teeth collected from the new site.

2016年，在研究了从新地点收集的颌骨和牙齿后，研究人员怀疑更早期的亲缘人类可能比“霍比特人”矮。

In the 13 years since its discovery, scientists have continued their investigations and they re-dated the cave settlements in which the hobbit was buried.

在这种人种被发现的13年后，科学家继续进行研究，并重新确定了这种人种被埋葬墓穴的时期。

Scientists do not yet know whether the hobbits shrank from an earlier, taller human species called Homo erectus that lived in the area, or from an even more primitive human ancestor.

科学家们还不知道“霍比特人”是从生活在该地区的更早期、更高的人类物种——直立人进化而来，还是来自更原始的人类祖先。

The writers of these books are creating the hobbits they still love and pine for; they are trying to bring Frodo and Sam back from the Grey Havens because Tolkien is no longer around to do it for them.

这些书的作者都在创造他们仍然热爱并且渴求的霍比特人；他们试图把弗罗多和山姆①①《魔成》三部曲的两位主人公，都是·比特人，一个虚构的矮人族。从格雷黑文找回来，因为托尔金已不在，无法替他们做到。