Posted on 05/19/2006 10:18:17 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
NEW report disputes scientists' claims that bones of a dwarf human discovered on an Indonesian island are those of an entirely new human species.
The 18,000-year-old bones found on Flores Island in 2003 were given the scientific name Homo floresiensis, and the nickname "Hobbit" after the diminutive figures in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel. Anthropologists from Australia and Indonesia said it was an entirely new human species.
The discovery of a new hominid excited scientists around the world. But a group of scientists led by primatologist Robert Martin said in the May 19 issue of Science magazine that the bones were simply those of Homo sapiens suffering from the pathological condition microcephaly, which results in small brain and body size.
Dr Martin said the initial research on a skeleton labelled "LB1" was faulty. He said the tiny cranial capacity of LB1 was "far too small to have been derived from Homo erectus by normal dwarfing".
A curator at the Field Museum in Chicago, a centre of natural history research, Dr Martin said the original analysis dismissing microcephaly as an explanation for LB1's small size was based on faulty models and comparisons, and he criticised the scientists for that analysis.
"There has been too much media hype and too little critical scientific evaluation surrounding this discovery, and it is simply unacceptable that papers should be published without providing proper details of the specimens examined," he said in a summary of his research.
His team also argued that sophisticated tools found with the Flores bones could not have been created by a race with such small brains.
(Excerpt) Read more at theage.com.au ...
ping!
ping
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.