hobbit

First there were hobbits. Then there weren’t hobbits. Then there were hobbits again, but they were regular humans with a disease. Now the verdict is in: There WERE hobbits but they WEREN’T human!

In a an analysis of the size, shape and asymmetry of the cranium of one of the beings that have come to be known as “Hobbits,” researcher Karen Baab and her colleagues have concluded that the fossil, found in Indonesia in 2003, is not human. They used 3-D shape analysis to study the skull and found its shape to be that of a scaled-down human ancestor but not a modern human, meaning that the hobbit is a new species.
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Remember those fossils of tiny people nicknamed Hobbits, that were discovered in Indonesia? Turns out they weren’t tiny after all?the so-called dwarfs of these Micronesian islands actually were modern, normal-sized hunters and gatherers.

It’s all the fault of an archeologist who misinterpreted fragments of leg bones, teeth and brow ridges found on the site. Anthropologist Greg C. Nelson says, Oregon “Our research from whole bones and whole skeletons indicates that the earliest individuals in Palau were of normal stature but gracile. In other words, they were thin [and not Hobbit-like at all].”
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There is ongoing controversy about whether or not a miniature species of human beings once lived on a remote island in Indonesia. Now archeologists have discovered tiny tools suggesting that this race of small humans really did exist. Anthropologist James Phillips says, “These tools are so advanced that there is no way they were made by anyone other than Homo sapiens.”

Steve Connor writes in the Independent that these people, who have been nicknamed “Hobbits” by the scientific community, were about 3 feet tall and became extinct over 10,000 years ago. Despite having small brains (the skulls that have been found can fit into the palm of a hand), they created fairly sophisticated tools.
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