Fossil-record analysis has led to this conclusion

Nov 19, 2009 14:20 GMT  ·  By

Homo floresiensis is only represented in the fossil record through a few fossilized remains, but they are enough to earn the small creature the rank of human species. A new study has recently concluded that the creature, which was jokingly dubbed the “hobbit,” was an actual human species, and not just a downgraded version that appeared because of a disease.

Since the fossils were found on the remote island of Flores in the Indonesian archipelago, in 2003, there was a heated debate in the international community as to whether the bones belonged to a completely new, unknown species of humans, or whether they had been left behind by normal descendants of the species living at the time, but suffering from a disease called microcephaly. The name of the disease literally means “small-headed.” The new investigation basically concludes that H. floresiensis was a distinct species of humans, and not a genetically altered version of existing hominids.

The research, which appears in the December issue of the scientific journal Significance, was conducted by a team of investigators at the Stony Brook University Medical Center, in New York. The journal is a publication of the Royal Statistical Society. The small-bodied, small-brained hominins were first discovered by a team of Australian and Indonesian researchers, who was investigating a group of caves on Flores Island. The amazing discovery of the new species was made in the Liang Bua limestone cave. It is estimated that the specimens that occupied the cave were about one meter tall, and lived from 38,000 to 13,000 years ago.

“It is difficult to believe an evolutionary change would lead to less economical movement. It makes little sense that this species re-evolved shorter thighs and legs because long hind limbs improve bipedal walking. We suspect that these are primitive retentions instead,” researcher William Jungers, PhD, explains, quoted by e! Science News. The expert spent a lot of time studying the skeletal remains of a female (LB1), nicknamed “Little Lady of Flores” or “Flo,” that were discovered at the site.

“Attempts to dismiss the hobbits as pathological people have failed repeatedly because the medical diagnoses of dwarfing syndromes and microcephaly bear no resemblance to the unique anatomy of Homo floresiensis,” researcher Karen Baab, PhD, who collaborated with Jungers on the analysis, concludes.