New 'Hobbit' disease link claim

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4268122.stm


Ah! I should have known that someone would debunk the whole story..

Scientists are to present new evidence that the tiny human species dubbed "The Hobbit" may not be what it seems.

The researchers say their findings strongly support an idea that the 1m- (3ft-) tall female skeleton from Indonesia is a diseased modern human.

[Russ]

[MetaWraith]

I saw the Horizon prog, and then the following day read page you linked too. I think the debate will go on for years yet. Probaly heated on both sides. Personally I favour the "leper colony" type idea, with people suffering from microcephalia or whatever it was.

more counter claims

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4331252.stm

The researchers say they are now more convinced than ever that Homo floresiensis represents a distinct species and not some diseased individual of modern human (Homo sapiens)as some sceptics have suggested.

"The finds further demonstrate that LB1 is not just an aberrant or pathological individual but is representative of a long-term population," they write in Nature.

A critical line in their argument is the length of time which the new collection of remains represents - possibly 80,000 years - making a disease explanation for the cause of the little people's stature and shape an unlikely one.

The team contends that Homo floresiensis, with its 380-cubic-cm-sized brain, is the outcome of a phenomenon known as endemic or island dwarfing.

This sees isolated species, released from the pressures of predation but constrained by limited resources, evolving either smaller or larger forms than would otherwise be the case.