Tiny new species of human unearthed - most important palaeoanthropological find for 50 years

newscientist. ^ | 27 October 04

[Truth666]

The remains of a tiny and hitherto unknown species of human that lived as recently as 13,000 years ago have been discovered on an Indonesian island.
The discovery has been heralded as the most important palaeoanthropological find for 50 years, and has radically altered the accepted picture of human evolution.
The female skeleton, known as LB1 - or by the nickname "Ebu" - has been assigned to a new species within the genus Homo - Homo floresiensis. Examination of the remains shows members of the species stood just 1 metre tall and had a brain no bigger than a grapefruit.
A handful of stone tools from the same period were also found in the caves, along with the bones and teeth of several dwarf stegodons, an ancestor of the modern elephant.
Instead of following a simple evolutionary path culminating in modern humans - Homo sapiens - the discovery of LB1 suggests early humans branched into many more forms than previously thought - some of which survived until very recently. The find also shows that small-brained humans could evolve without losing much of their intelligence.
"It is literally jaw-dropping," says Bernard Wood, an anthropologist at George Washington University in Washington DC, US. "The implications for the evolution of the [human] brain are among the most interesting."
"It raises the whole issue of what it is to be human, or a member of the genus Homo," adds Chris Stringer at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. "And shows how little we really know about human evolution."

[rwfromkansas]

Weird wild stuff. Fascinating.

I want to know what thet scientists find out about them.

[zeugma]

I love that letter. I've seen it before and it still gives me a chuckle. The fellow from the Smithstonian really seems to have a sense of humor.

[SunkenCiv]

February 2005 bump

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology magazine · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[Centurion2000]

wow .. this is practically ancient internet news. :)

[SunkenCiv]

:’)