Hobbits’ size not from illness

Comparisons show that the single skull among the remains is “clearly distinct” from skulls of healthy humans. Thus the fossil specimen may well deserve its designation as a representative of an extinct species,which scientists have called Homo floresiensis.

Much of the debate has centered on arguments that these small-bodied,small-brained hominins were nothing more than Homo sapiens who had growth disorders,possibly microcephaly,or endemic hypothyroidism,known as cretinism.

In a paper in the journal PLoS One,the researchers said their findings “counter the hypotheses of pathological conditions”.

The lead author,Karen L Baab,an anthropologist at Stony Brook University,said the findings provided the most comprehensive measurements to date of outer shape—every ridge and groove,every lump and bump—of the H. floresiensis cranium. The researchers concluded that the hobbit was a new species closely related to H. erectus and was not a human that had microcephaly.

The H. floresiensis fossils were found in 2003,buried in sediments in a cave known as Liang Bua. The single cranium is no bigger than a grapefruit. The size suggests that the brain was less than one-third the size of a human’s. From other skeletal remains of eight individuals,the hobbits stood not much more than three feet tall,walked upright and were anatomically more primitive than H. sapiens.