Are Hobbits Real?

The latest on Hobbits ......

I've been following this unique discovery for a couple years now since I first heard about it on the news, and later read a feature article about it in TIME magazine.

At first there was much excitement about finding a new species of Hominid, but soon the skeptics were on top of it all, putting the "new" discovery in doubt. Anything from disease to dwarfism was used to discredit it and the bottom line was there were not enough fossils to back up the theory from being a fluke of nature.

In many ways it is good to question new announcements of finds because of so many fakes in the past, as well as those that seek the spotlight for fifteen minutes of fame on less than thorough analysis and information. There are plenty of examples of that such as the infamous "Piltdown Man" in the UK.

Since the original announcement however, more fossils have been located backing up the new hominid claim. They can't all be flukes...can they?

It is not uncommon for a larger species limited to a small space to gradually shrink in size according to the fossil record, and in some species alive today. Limited amounts of food and land area having an impact on the population over a period of time, as well as the gene pool available.

 A good example would be the now extinct Dwarf Mammoths off the coast of California. Long ago Mammoths either swam to the islands, as elephants can do today quite well, or perhaps a land bridge was available during an ice-age. In either case they evolved into a species of dwarfs on the Anacapa Islands (Channel IslandsNat'l Park) just off the coast; and no record of them is found on the mainland at all.

Today the islands are located fourteen miles off shore from Ventura, CA. See link-

http://www.nps.gov/archive/chis/aipage.htm

It seems to me entirely plausible given enough time that a species of hominid made it to these small islands of Indonesia in a similar manner and over a period of time evolved into a new "Hobbit" sized human species. I'm sure the debate will go on for some time by some, but this article seems to validate that first announcement of a new species.

Check out the link below, and read for yourself...

'Hobbit' human 'is a new species'

The tiny skeletal remains of human "Hobbits" found on an Indonesian island belong to a completely new branch of our family tree, a study has found.

The finds caused a sensation when they were announced to the world in 2004.

But some researchers argued the bones belonged to a modern human with a combination of small stature and a brain disorder called microcephaly.

That claim is rejected by the latest study, which compares the tiny people with modern microcephalics.

Microcephaly is a rare pathological condition in humans characterised by a small brain and cognitive impairment.

In the new study, Dean Falk, of Florida State University, and her colleagues say the remains are those of a completely separate human species: Homo floresiensis.

They have published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The remains at the centre of the Hobbit controversy were discovered at Liang Bua, a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, in 2003.

Researchers found one near-complete skeleton, which they named LB1, along with the remains of at least eight other individuals.

The specimens were nicknamed Hobbits after the tiny creatures in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6311619.stm

I should mention an item that I found of interest during a television special on this topic. In the show they did a study on the current inhabitants of the Islandof Floresnoting the small stature (size) of the individuals living there. It was touched on whether they could possibly be descendants of some degree, but apparently not it was found.

Although not near as small in stature as the Hobbit, they average well below the normal human stature, to be almost pygmy in size. Could it be that once modern humans arrived later after the Hobbits became extinct, that they too have begun to shrink in size?

Thanks.

PS-

http://www.nature.com/news/specials/flores/flash/map11.html

Take a little tour of the island in the above link by clicking the arrows....enjoy.