26 Oct. 2004 - Peter Brown, a paleoanthropologist at the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia and Richard Roberts, a geochronologist at the University of Wollongong, Australia, have reported on the finding of a previously unknown species of homonid. Australian and Indonesian scientists led by Michael J. Morwood and R. P. Soejono discovered these remains on the remote island of Flores. Only a little over 3 feet tall, the people dubbed 'Hobbits' by the media, had heads the size of a grapfruit, and anatomical features more typical of Homo erectus than Homo sapiens. Yet artifactual evidence suggest they lived from 95,000 years ago until just 13,000 years ago, while Homo erectus was thought to have been extinct by 28,000 years ago.

It is thought that this short race of almost-humans was dwarfed as the result of a phenomena called 'island dwarfism' which also affected one of their prey animals, the pygmy elephant Stegodon. It looks as if both elephant and Homo floresiensis died out after a volcanic eruption about 12,000 to 13,00 years ago, shortly before the first evidence of modern man - Homo sapiens is found in the area (10,000 years ago).

Despite their small brains, just 1/3 of the size of modern man's, these people had a complex culture, evidenced by their extensive toolkit. They hunted the dwarf elephants, which must have required cooperation and coordination between hunters for success.

5 Nov. 2004 - Any discovery this astounding is bound to raise doubts. Professor Teuku Jacob of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta claims the skeletal remains are only 1300 to 1800 years old, and represent modern humans who were developmentally dwarfed by illnesses. And Harry Widianto of the Yogyakarta Archeology Agency said the 'Flores Man' was best regarded as a sub-species of Homo sapiens.

Because this research has such profound implications for our understanding of human evolution, there is bound to be much more work done in the area in the near future, and careful re-examination of the finds so far. This is science-in-progress, the end of the story is yet to be written.