Some researchers doubt that tools, found with the remains of the species named Homo floresiensis in a cave on the island of Flores, could have been made by the 3-foot-tall (90-centimeter-tall) creatures — whose brains were about the size of a grapefruit. They believe the tools must have been made by modern humans.

Experts have also argued that the "hobbit" people were modern humans suffering from an illness that caused their small brain and size. But an international team of scientists said older tools also found on the island, dating back more than 800,000 years, showed that the "hobbits" probably inherited their tool-making skills from their ancestors.

“Small-brained or not, Homo floresiensis was capable of making stone tools, and therefore the standard story of the relationship between brain size and behavioral complexity in human evolution may be less straightforward than currently assumed,” said the team's leader, Adam Brumm of the Australian National University in Canberra.

Until now it was thought that the larger the brain, the smarter the hominid. Brumm said his findings suggest that may not be the case.

“The causal relationship between brain size and the complexity of tool behavior in humans is assumed, not demonstrated,” Brumm said. “Until now stone tools have only been found in association with large and relatively large-brained hominids, but Homo floresiensis changes that, forcing us to rethink the way we associate big brain with sophisticated behavior.”

Story continues: msnbc.msn.com.