Hobbit forming

The memory of bones

THE folklores of many places speak of “little people”—human-like but not truly human creatures who live on the edge of humanity’s ken. They seemed mere legends, but in 2003 scientists found some (or, rather, their fossil remains) on Flores, an island in Indonesia. These remains, of individuals just over a metre tall, date from 60,000-100,000 years ago. They were called Homo floresiensis by their finders and “hobbits” by the press, after the fictional hominids invented by J.R.R. Tolkien. Now, some more, older, fossils have turned up.

The latest discoveries, published in this week’s Nature by Gerrit van den Bergh of the University of Wollongong, in Australia, and Yousuke Kaifu of Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science, go back 700,000 years. Dr van den Bergh and Dr Kaifu have recovered part of a jaw bone (pictured), six isolated adult teeth (five of which are pictured) and two milk teeth from a second site on Flores. One of the adult teeth, they believe, shows that Homo floresiensis descended from <em…Continue reading
Source: Economist