Growing support for ‘hobbit’ as distinct species

Growing support for ‘hobbit’ as distinct species

Here is what other scientists have discovered about Homo floriensis, “the hobbit”:

—An analysis of the teeth from at least three hobbits found traits similar to early Homo species or Australopithecus, which lived in Africa between 3.8 million and 2.9 million years ago. The research by Peter Brown and Tomoko Maeda in Australia was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

—Dean Falk and her colleagues at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that the hobbit’s brain looked nothing like that of a sick modern human. While small, it had a wrinkled surface and highly developed frontal lobe, characteristics consistent with the capabilities for higher thinking.

—One of the most definitive findings came two years ago when Matthew W. Tocheri, of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, published his findings in the journal Science. He found the hobbit’s left wrist was indistinguishable from an African ape or early hominid and nothing at all like that seen in modern humans and Neanderthals. “It sealed the deal for me,” he says.

— Harvard University biologist Daniel Lieberman and Columbia University anthropologist Ralph Holloway both started off skeptical but now agree with Tocheri that the hobbit is a new species. Holloway, though, has not ruled out that the brain may have been diseased.