In 2004, a group of researchers unearthed some very interesting fossils on the Indonesian island of Flores. These bones were considered to be that of an undiscovered human species. Their bone structure had striking similarities to those of humans, but gleaming differences such as a diminutive height of barely three feet tall.
In this past month, a group of Australian scientists released speculative reports that these "hobbit" fossils may in fact not be a new human species, but human dwarfs.
The researchers, Dr. Peter Obendorf from the School of Applied Science at RMIT University, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and colleagues, compared the skulls of the fossils discovered in the Liang Bua Caves of Indonesia with modern human skulls. They found that the possible new species was actually human, and the "dwarfism" was attributed to growth disorders brought about by a nutritional, particularly iodine, deficiency.
The excitement brought about by the possibility of a new species entering the animal kingdom should not have to die down just yet. Many researchers across Australia have debunked this speculative report that claim that these fossils are 18,000 years old human dwarfs. They argue that the comparison was not creditable because no significant examination was done on the original fossils, and just a comparison of skulls is not adequate because they are only a fraction of the total body.
These researchers, many of them who are acclaimed professors, believe that since the skull is only one part of the fossil, there needs to be further examination done in order to allow their dwarf speculation to be seriously evaluated. Until then, its just speculation based off of no solid facts.
Scientists from the initial discovery are hoping to settle everything by excavating more of these "hobbits" that have sufficient amounts of testable DNA to verify their claims once and for all.
The grapefruit-sized skulls, found by Australian and Indonesian researchers, are said to have lived amongst pygmy elephants and komodo dragons. Along with the fossils, scientists found stone tools such as blades, perforators, points, and other cutting utensils. The original skeleton was a female who stood at just 1 meter, or 3.3 feet tall, weighed about 55 pounds, and was about 30 years old at the time of her death. These skeletons, named Homo Floresienses (after the island), is the most deviant human stucture ever discovered. "To find that as recently as perhaps 13,000 years ago, there was another upright, bipedal - although small-brained - creature walking the planet at the same time as modern humans is as exciting as it was unexpected," said Peter Brown, a paleoanthropologist at the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia.
The fantastical figure of a "hobbit" associated in our culture as a short, jovial creature from the fictional "Lord of the Rings" series, may soon become real.
In addition to ongoing scientific research and expeditions, there have been legends and first-hand descriptions of unrecognizable bi-pedal creatures wandering the misty, remote forests of Indonesia for hundreds of years.
These creatures are called the "Orang Pendek" by locals and are described as standing upright, being two to four feet tall with motor movements similar to that of humans. These legendary stories of mysterious creatures, along with current scientific expeditions, show how curious we are to see what has been and is living among us.
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