New secrets unveiled about Hobbit species
Hobbit hands look more like the picture on the left
Also In The News
|
Blackburn Rovers suffered their first loss of the season after a shock 2-0 loss to Larissa in the first leg of their Uefa Cup first round tie. |  |
Friday, 21, Sep 2007 03:49
A new analysis of fossil remains of an early man known as the 'hobbit' has confirmed that he represents a different species of human.
Debate has raged about whether or not the hobbit, found on the Indonesian island of Flores four years ago, was a new species or a human with a physical disorder.
Researchers led by Matt Tocheri, a paleoanthropologist in the Smithsonian Institute's Human Origins Programme, studied three bones from the hobbit's wrist.
Writing in the journal Science, they argue that modern humans and Neanderthals have very differently-shaped wrists to living great apes.
But the hobbit's wrist is completely different from an African ape or an early man's wrist.
Dr Tocheri said he was completely surprised when he first saw the casts of the hobbit's bones.
"Up until then, I had no definitive opinion regarding the hobbit debates," he said. "But these hobbit wrist bones do not look anything like those of modern humans. They're not even close."
The researchers argue that the findings suggest that modern humans and Neanderthals share an early human ancestor that the hobbits do not.
"Basically the wrist evidence tells us that modern humans and Neandertals share an evolutionary grandparent that the hobbits do not, but all three share an evolutionary great-grandparent," Dr Tocheri concludes.
"If you think of modern humans and Neandertals as being first cousins then the hobbit is more like a second cousin to both."