Hobbits

[William]

Scientists said yesterday that stone artifacts found with remains of ancient, tiny "Hobbit"-like people on a remote Indonesian island are similar to much older island artifacts, offering new support for the theory that the fossils represent a unique species of archaic human.

The Australian-Indonesian research team said in the journal Nature that its analysis "negates claims" by critics that only modern humans could have made such tools, and that the Hobbits, with grapefruit-size brains, were modern humans afflicted with microcephaly, a debilitating genetic condition.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...02008.html

[xan-i]

Frodo Flores no fool

:big grin:

[xan-i]

Comparison between casts of the brain of LB1 left and Homo erectus right. The brain of Hobbit is much smaller but in overall shape is very similar to that of Homo erectus not modern human. However the brain of LB1 also has enlarged frontal lobes precisely those parts of the brain concerned with higher cognition and planning. Although small brained Homo floresiensis was definitely smart so finding evidence that they made sophisticated stone tools and used fire should come as no surprise. Note that the LB1 brain is totally different from those of individuals suffering a pathological condition known as microcephalia.

(Source: as above)