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    Hobbit Article Nonfiction

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    Hobbit Article Nonfiction

    Uploaded by

    api-237547272
    1K views2 pages

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    hobbit article nonfiction

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    Hobbit Article Nonfiction

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    api-237547272

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 2

    'Hobbit' joins human family tree

    Chris Stringer holds a cast of the 18,000-year-old hominid LB1

    Scientists have discovered a new and tiny species of humans that lived in Indonesia at the same time our own ancestors were colonizing the world. The 1m-tall (3ft) species - dubbed the "Hobbit" - lived on Flores Island until at least 12,000 years ago. The fact that little people feature in the legends of modern Flores islanders suggests we might have to take tales of Leprechauns and Yeti more seriously. The whole idea that you need a particular brain size to do anything intelligent is completely blown away by this find Dr Henry Gee, Nature Details of the sensational find are described in the journal Nature. Australian archaeologists unearthed the bones while digging at a site called Liang Bua, one of numerous limestone caves on Flores. The remains of the partial skeleton were found at a depth of 5.9m (19ft). At first, the researchers thought it was the body of a child. But further investigation revealed otherwise. Wear on the teeth and growth lines on the skull confirm it was an adult. Features of the pelvis identify it as female and a leg bone confirms that it walked upright like we do. "When we got the dates back from the skeleton and we found out how young it was, one anthropologist working with us said it must be wrong because it had so many archaic [primitive] traits," said co-discoverer Mike Morwood, associate professor of archaeology at the University of New England, Australia.

    Textbook rewrite
    Professor Stringer said the find "rewrites our knowledge of human evolution". He added: "To have [this species] present 12,000 years ago is frankly astonishing." Homo floresiensis might have evolved its small size in response to the scarcity of resources on the island.

    "When creatures get marooned on islands they evolve in new and unpredictable courses. Some species grow very big and some species grow very small," Dr Gee explained.

    LB1 was an adult female that stood just one metre in height
    Enlarge Image

    The sophistication of stone tools found with the Hobbit has surprised some scientists given the human's small brain size of 380cc (around the same size as a chimpanzee). "The whole idea that you need a particular brain size to do anything intelligent is completely blown away by this find," Dr Gee commented. Because the remains are relatively recent and not fossilised, scientists are even hopeful they might yield DNA, which could provide an entirely new perspective on the evolution of the human lineage.

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