What is the scientific name of the small hominid fossil discovered on Flores Island in 2003?

The scientific name of the small hominid fossil discovered on Flores Island in 2003 is Homo floresiensis.

The first specimens were found on 2 September 2003 in Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores by an Australian-Indonesian archaeological team. The discovery included a remarkably complete small-bodied skeleton known as LB1. The species was formally named and described in 2004, with LB1 designated as the holotype. Its nickname, “the Hobbit,” refers to its unusually short stature, not to a fictional identity.

Adults of Homo floresiensis stood roughly 1.1 metres tall. Researchers generally associate this small size with insular dwarfism, an evolutionary pattern in which island populations become smaller over many generations. Its ancestry remains an important subject of study, with proposed links to Homo erectus or an earlier, more primitive hominin lineage.

The species survived until roughly 50,000 years ago, much later than scientists once thought. Earlier remains found at Mata Menge date to about 700,000 years ago, showing that small-bodied hominins lived on Flores for a very long period.