Concerning Hobbits

More than a year ago we reported on the Homo floresiensis "Hobbit" findings in Indonesia. Since then, scientists have not been idle. They've been looking over the Flores fossils very carefully and now a group from the Smithsonian have announced that they think the "Hobbits" really were a different species -- not just a collection of abnormally small Homo sapiens as was suspected.

Matt Tocheri, the project head, noticed that the wrist bones of the Flores specimens didn't look at all like human bones. And since those bones form early in fetal development, they probably wouldn't be affected by any kind of developmental malady making the Flores people hobbit-sized.

This suggests the Hobbits are genuinely a separate human species. Cool! It's a pity the elves got them.

And a tip of the pointy Hobbit hat to Brian Rogers of Kudzu Online for alerting us to this story.