¬†And lo, the voices of Middle Earth did raise their nerdish cackle to the skies. Scientists have confirmed that Homo floresiensis is in fact a new species of hominin. Science Daily has all the news on this, so feel free to read the article. But with the finding of a fairly well-preserved skeleton of homo floresiensis, we’ve established that once there were hobbits.
Well, not exactly. But that’s what how they’re referring to members of this species. The hobbits are not hobbits in the Bilbo-and-Frodo sense, but they were little buggers who lived on an archipelago in Indonesia. There were arguments that they were just a group of really short people who probably suffered from microcephaly, but the researchers who have examined the remains, particularly one rather complete body nicknamed the Little Lady of Flores, have gone on record saying that this does not look like humans with a common genetic disease, but is in fact a separate species.
Interesting stuff to say the least.
Jim
Whoa, okay. That’s just way cool. I just read an article today about 40 new species that were discovered in an extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea. They found frogs with fangs and enormous woolly rats! Not nearly as cool as hobbits, tho.
I had heard about the giant rats and fanged frogs myself! It’s amazing to me to realize just how much we know balances against just how little we know about the world around us, but we’re learning!