Hobbits of Indonesia were different human species
‘Three old bones from a left wrist offer a new twist in the long running debate about the so called hobbits of Indonesia, suggesting they were indeed a small and different kind of human species, rather than modern humans with a growth disorder.
Three years ago, Prof Mike Morwood, of the University of New England, in Armidale, Australia, and colleagues made headlines worldwide when they announced the discovery of 18,000-year-old remains of Homo floresiensis in the Liang Bua Cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. [..]
Today in the journal Science an analysis of three wrist bones of one of the fossil specimens (called LB1) led by Matthew Tocheri of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, and including Prof Morwood and colleagues in Indonesia and America shows that the bones are primitive and shaped differently compared to both the wrist bones of both humans and of Neanderthals, suggesting they do represent a different kind of human.’
Followup to Hobbits may be earliest Australians.
