The new face of the Hobbit

A new facial reconstruction of Homo floresiensis was introduced last week at the Australian Archaeological Association’s annual conference and also made its rounds in the news media. Reconstructions of the hobbit have been commonplace, but what makes this face different is that Susan Hayes has published a paper on the reconstruction, explaining how and why this face was derived from the bones. Here’s a roundup of the news:

Hobbit face revealed
Cosmos, 10 December 2012

Real-Life ‘Hobbit’ Face Revealed
LiveScience, 10 December 2012

‘She’s not pretty’ – meet a real hobbit
The Age, 10 December 2012

The Flores Hobbit’s face revealed
The Conversation, 10 December 2012

What a hobbit REALLY looks like: Researchers reconstruct the face of Homo floresiensis
Daily Mail, 10 December 2012

New face for ancient ‘Hobbit’ unveiled
Illawara Mercury, 10 December 2012

Hobbit Face: Homo Floresiensis Researchers Reconstruct Facial Features Of Ancient Human
Huffington Post, 11 December 2012

The face of an ancient, short-statured hominin species called Homo floresiensis – nicknamed the ‘hobbit’ – has been unveiled at a conference in Australia.

Facial anthropologist at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Susan Hayes, created a ‘facial approximation’ of what the archaic hominin probably looked like (pictured, right) using remains of a female dated at between 18,000 and 38,000 years old, discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003.

“In the media it’s often called ‘facial reconstruction’, but because I’m evidence-based and work in archaeological science, we prefer the term ‘facial approximation’,” Hayes said in a statement.

Full story here, for links to other stories see above.