It might not yet be enough to convince a jury, but mounting evidence suggests ancestors of modern humans wiped out the world's only known population of hobbits.

A race of 3.5ft tall humans - known as "hobbits" - were using stone tools on the Indonesian island of Flores 50,000 years ago but then mysteriously vanished.

Scientists now believe modern Homo sapiens humans were using fire in the hobbits' cave at least 41,000 years ago.

The discovery of hearths in the Liang Bua cave indicates that hobbits and modern humans both occupied the site within 11,000 years of each other.