Last Updated Fri, 04 Mar 2005 08:05:06 EST
CBC News
WASHINGTON - Early dwarfs or fossilized "hobbits" discovered in Indonesia may have had the brains of a previously unknown species of early humans, imaging scans suggests.
The new finding supports the hypothesis that Homo floresiensis, or "Man of Flores," was marooned on the island at the same time modern humans flourished elsewhere in the world.
FROM : New find raises questions about earliest humans
Researchers produced a computer-generated model of the 3-foot species using impressions of the fossilized skulls.
Florida State University anthropologist Dean Falk and her team then compared the inside of the fossil skulls with casts from modern and ancient humans, chimps and other primates.
When the fossil discovery was announced last year, anthropologists said the skull was about the size of a grapefruit.
The Flores dwarfs hunted pygmy elephants, made fire and stone tools, the researchers said.
Now, the chimplike brain has been measured to 717 cubic centimetres. They also found the brain has a wrinkled surface like Homo erectus and a large temporal lobe.
A fissure near the back of the Flores brain called the lunate sulcus resembles the size found in a modern human brain, the team said in Friday's online issue of Science Express.
The fossils also show a large temporal lobe between the ears that we use to hear, identify images, process emotions and remember.
Other parts of the skeleton were more primitive, such as coarse teeth and an ape-like pelvis.
Not all researchers agree with the team's interpretation of the significance of the brain scans.
CBC News
WASHINGTON - Early dwarfs or fossilized "hobbits" discovered in Indonesia may have had the brains of a previously unknown species of early humans, imaging scans suggests.
The new finding supports the hypothesis that Homo floresiensis, or "Man of Flores," was marooned on the island at the same time modern humans flourished elsewhere in the world.
FROM : New find raises questions about earliest humans
Researchers produced a computer-generated model of the 3-foot species using impressions of the fossilized skulls.
Florida State University anthropologist Dean Falk and her team then compared the inside of the fossil skulls with casts from modern and ancient humans, chimps and other primates.
When the fossil discovery was announced last year, anthropologists said the skull was about the size of a grapefruit.
The Flores dwarfs hunted pygmy elephants, made fire and stone tools, the researchers said.
Now, the chimplike brain has been measured to 717 cubic centimetres. They also found the brain has a wrinkled surface like Homo erectus and a large temporal lobe.
A fissure near the back of the Flores brain called the lunate sulcus resembles the size found in a modern human brain, the team said in Friday's online issue of Science Express.
The fossils also show a large temporal lobe between the ears that we use to hear, identify images, process emotions and remember.
Other parts of the skeleton were more primitive, such as coarse teeth and an ape-like pelvis.
Not all researchers agree with the team's interpretation of the significance of the brain scans.
2 comments:
small brains resembling humans, not all researchers agree on that. hmm. I think modern elephant hunters evolved from these elephant hunters.
this reminds me of the story of the archaeological site where they found evidence of tool making and evidence of a hippo. they assumed that the tools were for butchering the hippo and that the people had hunted the hippo and then made tools, butchered it and taken the meat with them. so this population must subsist on hippo meat.
after the advent of some new technologies, they came to the conclusion that the hippo died of natural causes and many, many, many years later someone came along and made some stone tools, coincidentally on the exact same spot and the rest was all overblown conjecture.
how do they know based on a few bones that there was a community of these creatures, that they hunted pygmy elephants, that there were more of these than just the ones they found? it's a cute idea to imagine tiny people hunting tiny elephants, but i don't see how they could have any evidence of who killed any elephants they found even if they are in the same cave. I want to see tiny houses made out of tiny elephant bones with tiny tool marks on them and more tiny skeletons. otherwise, i'm going with the theory that it could have been a common birth defect in an otherwise average population. or just wait and see before coming to any conclusion - my god - not just jumping to a conclusion based on very little evidence! jennifer, you must be in the wrong academic discipline!
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