On My Fossil Wish List: Homo sulawesiensis
Could 2007 see some new hobbits? I certainly hope so....Posted on January 29, 2007 11:38 PM • 14 Comments •
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Why the Loom?
"...among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters, heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad."
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Hobbits (Homo floresiensis):
Homo floresiensis: Two Years Out
Two years ago this month, I was taken aback by some explosive news. A team of Indonesian and Australian scientists reported that they had discovered fossils of what they claimed was a new species of hominid. It lived on the...Posted on October 9, 2006 1:21 AM • 40 Comments •
Return of the Microcephalic Hobbit
The Sunday Times in the UK reported yesterday on an upcoming paper that claims that the ever-fascinating Homo floresiensis (a k a the Hobbit) is not a new species, as previously reported. Instead, it was a human with a genetic...Posted on August 21, 2006 7:45 AM • 10 Comments •
Hobbits: Happy, Healthy, Human?
It's been twenty months now since scientists reported discovering fossils on the Indonesian island of Flores belonging to a three-foot-tall hominid with a brain the size of a chimp that lived recently as 12,000 years ago. Homo floresiensis, as this...Posted on June 21, 2006 9:24 PM • 18 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
Small Girls with Sharp Rocks
When we speak of the Hobbit, let us not forget her tools. Last year, scientists reported discovering fossils of a three-foot-tall hominid that they named Homo floresiensis, and which I can't keep myself from calling the Hobbit. Its bones turned...Posted on June 9, 2006 10:13 AM • 2 Comments •
Jakob the Hobbit?
It's been a little over a year and a half now since scientists announced the disocvery of the most controversial fossil in the field of human origins: Homo floresiensis a k a the Hobbit. Scientists found bones of a dimunitive...Posted on May 18, 2006 2:01 PM • 16 Comments •
Kate Wong on the Hobbit Trail
Kate Wong, Scientific American's excellent paleo reporter has a two-parter on the latest dish on Homo floresiensis a k a the Hobbit. No cymbal crashes, I'm afraid, but interesting nonetheless....Posted on March 22, 2006 8:56 PM • 2 Comments •
Do Not Arm-Wrestle With Hobbits
Peter Brown, one of the discoverers of Homo floresiensis a k a the Hobbit (previous posts here), had a few interesting remarks in an article in today's Oregon Daily Emerald: Though the hobbit people were very small -- the adult...Posted on February 8, 2006 11:02 PM • 16 Comments •
Hobbit As Monkey?
Well, here's an idea I haven't heard of before... Last year scientists found the bones of what they recognized as a new species of hominid that lived as recently as 12,000 years ago. They named it Homo floresiensis, and its...Posted on October 27, 2005 9:37 AM • 11 Comments •
Whose Brain Is It Anyway? (The Further Hobbit Adventures)
Finally, more brains. On Tuesday I wrote about how the second batch of Homo floresiensis bones had at last seen the scientific light of day. Today the critics who don't think the Hobbit is a new species are making...Posted on October 14, 2005 10:14 AM • 7 Comments •
Hobbits again
Finally: more bones. Last October the world marveled at the announcement of the discovery of a new species of hominid, Homo floresiensis, in a cave called Liang Bua on the Indonesian island of Flores. One conclusion was more shocking than...Posted on October 11, 2005 8:08 AM • 20 Comments •
Look! Up in the Sky! Flying Hobbits!
In October 2004 Australian and Indonesian announced they had discovered a three-foot tall species of hominid, Homo floresiensis, that was still alive no earlier than18,000 years ago. As I’ve detailed in previous posts, this claim has inspired a lot of...Posted on June 16, 2005 10:22 AM • 10 Comments •
Return to Hobbit Limbo
So let’s recap: It’s been almost eight months now since scientists announced the discovery of Homo floresiensis, the diminutive people that some claim belong to a new branch of hominid evolution and skeptics claim were just small humans. We...Posted on June 15, 2005 10:20 AM • 19 Comments •
Hobbits Alive?
The feud over Homo floresiensis, the little people of Indonesia, centers on whether they were an extinct diminutive species that evolved from some ancient hominid, such as Homo erectus, or whether they were just pygmy humans, perhaps suffering from...Posted on April 29, 2005 1:20 PM • 8 Comments •
Trouble in Middle Earth?
I've been catching up on my online reading, and a couple days ago John Hawks offered this tantalizing hint that Homo floresiensis a k a the Hobbit may be a pathological specimen. Such claims have been made before based on...Posted on April 12, 2005 11:54 AM • 2 Comments •
The Hobbit's Brain
At 1 p.m. today I listened by phone to a press conference in Washington where scientists presented the first good look inside a Hobbit's head. The view is fascinating. While it may help clear up some mysteries, it seems to...Posted on March 3, 2005 2:00 PM • 9 Comments •
Return of the Prodigal Bones
The Sydney Morning Herald reports today that the bones of Homo floresiensis, aka the Hobbits, have at last been returned to the team that originally discovered them. The team, made up of Indonesian and Australian scientists, discovered the bones on...Posted on February 24, 2005 10:26 AM • 1 Comments •
The Hobbit War: An Indonesian View
The Guardian has a long but disjointed report about the dispute over Homo floresiensis. Articles like these rarely give a very good picture of scientific disputes, since all parties involved only get a couple catchy quotes apiece. I've been particularly...Posted on January 18, 2005 8:00 PM • 3 Comments •
Hominid Sculpture
The Australian media are doing a fantastic job of keeping up with the developments with Homo floresiensis. Here's the first three-dimensional reconstruction I've seen of the little hominid, made by an Australian archaeologist. It's published on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's...Posted on December 10, 2004 9:56 AM • •
Bones on the Loose
Homo floresiensis update: The Economist weighs in on the "borrowing" of the fossils. They mention that when the bones were removed, they were simply stuffed in a leather bag. This is not exactly the sort of procedure you see in...Posted on December 9, 2004 1:13 PM • 1 Comments •
Hobbit Update
The tension continues to mount over the locking-up of the Homo floresiensis fossils, according to this new article in the Australian. (via Gene Expression)...Posted on December 3, 2004 9:29 AM • •
Hobbit Limbo?
Last month saw the bombshell report that a tiny species of hominid lived on an Indonesian island 18,000 years ago. Since then there has been a dribbling of follow-up news. Some American paleoanthropologists have expressed skepticism, pointing out that while...Posted on November 26, 2004 9:54 PM • 5 Comments •
Island of the Lost Hominids
Get to know that little skull. Scientists are going to be talking about it for centuries. As researchers report in tomorrow's issue of Nature, the skull--and along with other parts of a skeleton--turned up in a cave on the...Posted on October 26, 2004 10:30 PM • 19 Comments •
