Friday, May 19, 2006

Homo floresiensis not a Hobbit


Photograph by John Weinstein, courtesy of the Field Museum/Science
The skull cast (left) and cast of the endocranial cavity of a modern adult human who suffered from the genetic disease microcephaly.


In a new analysis, a team of researchers report that the "hobbits" who lived on the Indonesian island of Flores some 18,000 years ago were actually a population of microcephalic modern humans, and not a new species (H. floresiensis).

Read the “Science news of the Week”article about this story HERE.

The argument against: Comment on "The Brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis".. 2006. R. D. Martin, et al. Science 3112: 999

The rebuttal by the original authors:Response to Comment on "The Brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis". 2006. Dean Falk, et al., Science 312: 999