Following the suggestion from last week’s controversial paper about the nature of the Flores Hobbits comes a new discovery that may argue that the Hobbits are just really small humans. Fossil remains found in the Micronesian island of Palau have displayed some similarities to the so-called homo floresiensis fossils found in 2004. The open-access study was published in the Public Library of Science journal, PLoS ONE. There’s apparently a National Geographic documentary about the skeletons to be released on March 17, but I don’t think it’ll be out in Asia.

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Small-Bodied Humans from Palau, Micronesia
Lee R. Berger, Steven E. Churchill, Bonita De Klerk, Rhonda L. Quinn

Abstract:
Newly discovered fossil assemblages of small bodied Homo sapiens from Palau, Micronesia possess characters thought to be taxonomically primitive for the genus Homo.
Background

Recent surface collection and test excavation in limestone caves in the rock islands of Palau, Micronesia, has produced a sizeable sample of human skeletal remains dating roughly between 940-2890 cal ybp.

Principle Findings

Preliminary analysis indicates that this material is important for two reasons. First, individuals from the older time horizons are small in body size even relative to “pygmoid” populations from Southeast Asia and Indonesia, and thus may represent a marked case of human insular dwarfism. Second, while possessing a number of derived features that align them with Homo sapiens, the human remains from Palau also exhibit several skeletal traits that are considered to be primitive for the genus Homo.

Significance

These features may be previously unrecognized developmental correlates of small body size and, if so, they may have important implications for interpreting the taxonomic affinities of fossil specimens of Homo.

• Tiny Palau skeletons suggest ‘hobbits’ were dwarfs (Reuters, 10 March 2008)
• 3,000 year old small body humans in Palau, Micronesia (Anthropology.net, 10 March 2008)
• The “Mystery Skulls of Palau” on the National Geographic Channel, Monday, March 17th at 10 PM (Anthropology.net, 10 March 2008)
• Ancient Small Humans’ Bones Found on Island (National Geographic News, 10 March 2008)
• Video: Ancient Little People Found? (National Geographic News, 10 March 2008)
• Micronesian Islands colonized by Small-bodied Humans (Science Daily, 11 March 2008)
• Tiny Pacific skeletons stir Hobbit debate (ABC News in Science, 11 March 2008)
• Palau people don’t undermine Hobbits (The Age, 11 March 2008)
• Discovery Challenges Finding of a Separate Human Species (New York Times, 11 March 2008)
• Were Fossil ‘Hobbits’ Just Little Humans? (Wired, 11 March 2008)
• Hobbits Redux? (Science, 11 March 2008)

Related Books:
– A New Human: The Startling Discovery and Strange Story of the “Hobbits” of Flores, Indonesia by M. Morwood and P. van Oosterzee
– Little People And a Lost World: An Anthropological Mystery by L. Goldenberg
– Indo-Pacific Prehistory 1990. Proceedings of the 14th Congress Held at Yogyakarta. Vol 1 & 2. by P. Bellwood (Ed)
– Man’s conquest of the Pacific: The prehistory of Southeast Asia and Oceania by P. Bellwood
– Bioarchaeology of Southeast Asia (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology) by M. Oxenham