No Hobbits | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

[TBC: Discoveries of skeletal remains on an Indonesian island in 2004 have been promoted as a new species, and clear proof of evolution. Time proves to be the enemy of evolutionary theory. More recent study has shown that the earlier (and much publicized) claims are false.]

No Hobbits in this Shire: Researchers say skeletal remains are pygmy ancestors [Excerpts]

University Park, Pa. -- The skeletal remains found in a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia, reported in 2004, do not represent a new species as then claimed but are some of the ancestors of modern human pygmies who live on the island today, according to an international scientific team.

The researchers also demonstrate that the fairly complete skeleton designated LB1 is microcephalic, while other remains excavated from the site share LB1's small stature but show no evidence of microcephaly, since no other brain cases are known. Microcephaly is a condition in which the head and brain are much smaller than average for the person's age and gender. It can be present at birth or develop afterwards and is associated with a complex of other growth and skeletal anomalies.

"Our work documents the real dimensions of human variation here," said Robert B. Eckhardt, professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology in the Department of Kinesiology at PennState. "LB1 looks different if researchers think in terms of European characteristics because it samples a population that is not European, but Australomelanesian, and further because it is a developmentally abnormal individual, being microcephalic."

Teuku Jacob, of the laboratory of bioanthropology and paleoanthropology at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia, was granted permission to study the original bones by Radien P. Soejono, NationalArchaeologicalResearchCenter, Jakarta, Indonesia. The analysis by Jacob's full research team, including Eckhardt and others mentioned below, demonstrates that claims of a new species -- "Homo floresiensis" -- commonly called hobbits, are incorrect.

Jacob and colleagues found four major areas of evidence where the 2004 evaluation was wrong: geographical factors, craniofacial asymmetry, dental traits and postcranial abnormalities. They discuss these areas in today's (Aug. 21) online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Those proposing a separate species had claimed that early human ancestors, Homo erectus, traveled to the island about 840,000 years ago and evolved into "Homo floresiensis," based on the discovery of stone tools on the island. This claim assumed that there was no subsequent human migration to the island until after "Homo floresiensis" died out about 15,000 years ago. Jacob and colleagues contend this is false since pygmy elephants (Stegodon) arrived on the island at least two separate times, and during periods of low sea levels Flores was isolated from other islands by only a few kilometers, as shown by K. Hsu, of the National Institute of Earth Sciences, Beijing. Repeated influxes by later humans not only were possible, but likely. (http://live.psu.edu/story/19059).