A shorter history of mankind
"Australian and Indonesian scientists stunned the world a year ago with their discovery in a cave on Flores of the skull and partial skeleton of a new kind of human, dubbed hobbit, who was about a metre tall with a brain the size of a chimpanzee's.
"We now have evidence for at least nine individuals," the research team leader, Mike Morwood, of the University of New England, said yesterday.
Independent scientists who were not members of the discovery team said the latest analysis of the finds, described today in the journal Nature, confirmed the hobbits, Homo floresiensis, belonged to a new species of humans, and were not merely pygmies or diseased modern humans, as a small number of sceptics have claimed.
"This clinches it 100 per cent," said Dr Colin Groves, of the Australian National University.
Daniel Lieberman, of Harvard University, said excavations in Liang Bua cave showed it had been inhabited for more than 80,000 years by people hunting pygmy elephants, making stone tools and using fire.
If they were just small, modern humans with brain deformities, they would have had to survive for a very long time.
"Such possibilities strain credulity," Professor Lieberman said.
Peter Brown, a member of the team from the University of New England, said the newly described remains, which included a second jaw, the right arm of the original skeleton and other leg and arm bones, showed some of the adults were even less than a metre tall.
The team had initially thought the hobbits had descended from a more recent human ancestor, Homo erectus, who underwent a dwarfing process on the island similar to the pygmy elephants.
"But increasingly the evidence is pointing towards an ancestor with the same body size and brain size as australopithecines," Professor Brown said. With long arms, thick bones and small brains, these people had body proportions "exactly the same as Lucy's".
The new fossils were found last year, but the researchers were unable to dig in Liang Bua this year following a custody dispute with a leading Indonesian researcher over the priceless remains, which resulted in them being irreparably damaged.
Instead, Professor Morwood and his colleagues excavated in the nearby Soa Basin and found "very exciting" evidence, including stone tools that pushed back the known human occupation of the island to at least 1 million years."
"We now have evidence for at least nine individuals," the research team leader, Mike Morwood, of the University of New England, said yesterday.
Independent scientists who were not members of the discovery team said the latest analysis of the finds, described today in the journal Nature, confirmed the hobbits, Homo floresiensis, belonged to a new species of humans, and were not merely pygmies or diseased modern humans, as a small number of sceptics have claimed.
"This clinches it 100 per cent," said Dr Colin Groves, of the Australian National University.
Daniel Lieberman, of Harvard University, said excavations in Liang Bua cave showed it had been inhabited for more than 80,000 years by people hunting pygmy elephants, making stone tools and using fire.
If they were just small, modern humans with brain deformities, they would have had to survive for a very long time.
"Such possibilities strain credulity," Professor Lieberman said.
Peter Brown, a member of the team from the University of New England, said the newly described remains, which included a second jaw, the right arm of the original skeleton and other leg and arm bones, showed some of the adults were even less than a metre tall.
The team had initially thought the hobbits had descended from a more recent human ancestor, Homo erectus, who underwent a dwarfing process on the island similar to the pygmy elephants.
"But increasingly the evidence is pointing towards an ancestor with the same body size and brain size as australopithecines," Professor Brown said. With long arms, thick bones and small brains, these people had body proportions "exactly the same as Lucy's".
The new fossils were found last year, but the researchers were unable to dig in Liang Bua this year following a custody dispute with a leading Indonesian researcher over the priceless remains, which resulted in them being irreparably damaged.
Instead, Professor Morwood and his colleagues excavated in the nearby Soa Basin and found "very exciting" evidence, including stone tools that pushed back the known human occupation of the island to at least 1 million years."
For those with an unIntelligent Design bent who just want a good laugh at this: http://www.s8int.com/hobbit.html
For those with a desire to learn something: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/viewing/3209_01_nsn.html
Labels: Whatever
posted by Guambat Stew at Thursday, October 13, 2005
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