Homo floresiensis (aka "the Hobbit"> was one of those discoveries that made a huge splash, created a lot of controversy, and has been out of the news for awhile now. Wondering what's going on, and what's ahead? Sciam Observations has a bit of an update--and expects more later this year. This is one area where I wish I had more of an inside track.
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John Hawks had this very interesting review of a new Disovery Channel piece on the story, (3/4/06) in which he indicates that it is superior to the one originally done for the National Geographic Channel.
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/fossils/flores/hobbit_mystery_discovery_200…
My fear from the beginning of this has been that paleoanthropologists in their zeal to discover new human ancestors and relatives, may have finally really blown it. This would only give Creationists more fuel. The answer to said Creationists is that a single piece of sloppy science does not invalidate the whole discipline, and that if Floresiensis ends up proven to be something other than claimed, it will be accomplished by other outstanding paleoanthropologists, and not by someone with an engineering degree at the Discovery Institute.
And I'm not suggesting that it WAS "a piece of sloppy science" or that there is a huge problem with Homo floresiensis. I'm no expert. I just have a bad feeling.... and I'm not alone. Here's the whole "Hobbit Series" from Zimmer's "The Loom". Several of his posts include references to the cloud hanging over this thing.
http://loom.corante.com/archives/hobbits_homo_floresiensis/
I really hate this whole rush to find and name a new species. I mean, I know it has to be GREAT for a career to be the next Leakey or Johannson but that not a good enough reason to bring the entire area of science under a cloud of suspicion and mistrust. And I think that even if that doesn't happen in this case, it will eventually with this headlong rush to "be first". How about if we just find fossils and then analyze them thoughtfully for a long period, by various experts and only THEN make some grand pronoucement?
Maybe it is an American thing, but it seems to me that loony Christians should not be taken into consideration when discussing controvertial new species. Never try to appease these people. They are more about power than religion.
I don't think anything done so far has brought the entire area into a cloud of suspician. The reports I read in the media all said things like - it appears that, more research will tell, those sort of phrases.