Monday, August 28, 2006

Homo floresiensis Controversy

A couple of years ago, the discovery of 18,000 year-old diminutive human bones on the Indonesian island of Flores, set off a big stir in the popular press. The discoverers characterized this as a separate species of small humans, Homo floresiensis, and they were commonly referred to as "hobbits" on television and in the papers.

Well, now another team has studied the remains, and offers a conflicting interpretation. They believe that these don't represent another species at all, merely pygmy H. sapiens, and that the one cranium found is from a microcephalic individual, throwing the original discoverers off in their analysis.

This is going to be one of those feuds that will go on for years and that will be fun to watch from the sidelines. At least, if you don't have a dog in the fight. A great place to watch and keep score is John Hawks Anthropology Weblog. Hawks is a physical anthropology professor at the University of Wisconsin who writes a very readable blog on anthropological subjects that is a regular read for me. He already has a topic thread set up for this subject.

3 comments:

Matt Mullenix said...

To me, the species issue is a moot point.

The basic question (as I remember it initially posed) was whether humans would exhibit dwarfism in response to isolation on an island; the examples from island animals are many, but dwarf mammoths make good ones for a start.

To prove this, we don't need the "Hobbits" to be a separate specie, only small people "breeding to type," as it were. That seems to be the case, right?

I was never sure why this should be so amazing...except you know these days it is un-PC to discuss natural differences in people (um, unless you call them "challenges" or treatable medical conditions).

Heidi the Hick said...

Well guys, I just have to say, you've all been so busy, and here I am on dial up...it takes ages to load anything so I'm only checking every few days and not commenting much. I just have to tell you that this blog is so interesting! Did I ever mention that?

The oarfish might give me nightmares though.

Steve, I just read Jonathan Strange and I loved it. I'm going to post a review when I get back to my high speed hovel.

Keep up the good work!

Reid Farmer said...

Thank you, Heidi!! Steve has really been on a tear lately.