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An Australian academic who has examined the skeletal remains of a three-foot hominid discovered in an Indonesian cave and nicknamed a “hobbit” disputed Friday a report that they represent a new species of human.
Professor Maciej Henneberg, head of anatomy at Adelaide University, said he thought the bones found in 2003 on Indonesia’s Flores island were simply those of a normal human stunted by a viral disease, microcephaly – a conclusion rejected in the earlier report by another team of scientists.
That team analyzed the find and said the partial skeleton was evidence of a new, dwarf species of human. Their conclusion was reported on Science Express, the online edition of the U.S. journal Science.
Henneberg spent several days in Jakarta last month helping to document the bones estimated to be 18,000 years old.
“I had time to thoroughly inspect the bones of the skeleton,” Henneberg said.
sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=30968
Professor Maciej Henneberg, head of anatomy at Adelaide University, said he thought the bones found in 2003 on Indonesia’s Flores island were simply those of a normal human stunted by a viral disease, microcephaly – a conclusion rejected in the earlier report by another team of scientists.
That team analyzed the find and said the partial skeleton was evidence of a new, dwarf species of human. Their conclusion was reported on Science Express, the online edition of the U.S. journal Science.
Henneberg spent several days in Jakarta last month helping to document the bones estimated to be 18,000 years old.
“I had time to thoroughly inspect the bones of the skeleton,” Henneberg said.
sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=30968