'Hobit' Fossil May Be New Human Species
Posted on: Thursday, 3 March 2005, 18:00 CST
A fossil of a small person nicknamed the Hobbit likely represents a previously unrecognized species of early humans, a study says.
That's the conclusion reached after a detailed comparison of the fossil's brain case with those of humans, apes and other human ancestors.
Skeptics had argued the Hobbit, discovered in Indonesia and first announced last fall, could have suffered from a disorder that limited brain growth known as microcephaly.
The fossils' discoverers had suggested the Hobbit was either a pygmy form of a known species or a previously undiscovered species of early humans.
The new data on the Hobbit reveal little similarity to microcephalics and pygmies and support the theory the fossil is a member of a unique ancestral species, according to researchers who publish their results online this week in Science.
Scientists at Florida State University; Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis; the University of New England, Australia; and the Indonesian Center for Archaeology, Jakarta, authored the new paper.
Source: United Press International
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