The Daily Telegraph refreshes us on a story you may have missed a few months back: The discovery of a miniature species of hominids on Earth at the same time as modern man (albiet ~12000 years ago). While unlikely in the extreme, it's fascinating to imagine that early human mythology could have some root in truth.
Scientists led by Australian anthropologist Michael Morwood of the University of New England announced their sensational discovery of a delicate skull and partial skeleton of a female, nicknamed "Hobbit" and believed to be 18,000 years old.Hobbits family tree grows
In addition, they found bones and fragments of other individuals ranging in age from 12,000 to 95,000 years old.
It ignited a controversy unlike any other in the often contentious study of human origins.
The tiny bones have enchanted many anthropologists, who accept the interpretation that these diminutive skeletons belonged to a remnant population of prehistoric humans marooned on Flores along with dwarf elephants and other miniaturised animals, giving the discovery a fairytale quality.
If true, the discovery grafts a strange and tangled evolutionary branch near the very top of the human family tree.
Its discoverers speculate the Hobbit evolved from homo erectus, which had spread from Africa across Asia. They attribute its small size to its isolation.
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