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 From: ob110ob@aatt.net 
  
 Scientists Find Prehistoric Dwarf Skeleton 
  
 By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer 
  
 In a breathtaking discovery, scientists working on a 
 remote Indonesian island say they have uncovered the 
 bones of a human dwarf species marooned for eons while 
 modern man rapidly colonized the rest of the planet. 
  
 One tiny specimen, an adult female measuring about 3 
 feet tall, is described as "the most extreme" figure to 
 be included in the extended human family. Certainly, 
 she is the shortest. 
  
 This hobbit-sized creature appears to have lived as 
 recently as 18,000 years ago on the island of Flores, a 
 kind of tropical Lost World populated by giant lizards 
 and miniature elephants. 
  
 She is the best example of a trove of fragmented bones 
 that account for as many as seven of these primitive 
 individuals. Scientists have named the new species Homo 
 floresiensis, or Flores Man. The specimens' ages range 
 from 95,000 to 12,000 years old. 
  
 The discovery has astonished anthropologists unlike any 
 in recent memory. Flores Man is a totally new creature 
 that was fundamentally different from modern humans. 
 Yet it lived until the threshold of recorded human 
 history, probably crossing paths with the ancestors of 
 today's islanders. 
  
 "This finding really does rewrite our knowledge of 
 human evolution," said Chris Stringer, who directs 
 human origins studies at the Natural History Museum in 
 London. "And to have them present less than 20,000 
 years ago is frankly astonishing." 
  
 Flores Man was hardly formidable. His grapefruit-sized 
 brain was about a quarter the size of the brain of our 
 species, Homo sapiens. It is closer in size to the 
 brains of transitional prehuman species in Africa more 
 than 3 million years ago. 
  
 Yet evidence suggests Flores Man made stone tools, lit 
 fires and organized group hunts for meat. 
  
 Just how this primitive, remnant species managed to 
 hang on is unclear. Geologic evidence suggests a 
 massive volcanic eruption sealed its fate some 12,000 
 years ago, along with other unusual species on the 
 island. 
  
 Still, researchers say the perseverance of Flores Man 
 smashes the conventional wisdom that modern humans 
 began to systematically crowd out other upright-walking 
 species 160,000 years ago and have dominated the planet 
 alone for tens of thousands of years. 
  
 And it demonstrates that Africa, the acknowledged 
 cradle of humanity, does not hold all the answers to 
 persistent questions of how € and where € we came to 
 be. 
  
 "It is arguably the most significant discovery 
 concerning our own genus in my lifetime," said 
 anthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington 
 University, who reviewed the research independently. 
  
 Discoveries simply "don't get any better than that," 
 proclaimed Robert Foley and Marta Mirazon Lahr of 
 Cambridge University in a written analysis. 
  
 To others, the specimen's baffling combination of 
 slight dimensions and coarse features bears almost no 
 meaningful resemblance either to modern humans or to 
 our large, archaic cousins. 
  
 They suggest that Flores Man doesn't belong in the 
 genus Homo at all, even if it was a recent 
 contemporary. But they are unsure how to classify the 
 species. 
  
 "I don't think anybody can pigeonhole this into the 
 very simple-minded theories of what is human," 
 anthropologist Jeffery Schwartz of the University of 
 Pittsburgh. "There is no biological reason to call it 
 Homo. We have to rethink what it is." 
  
 Details of the discovery appear in Thursday's issue of 
 the journal Nature. 
  
   
  
 Researchers from Australia and Indonesia found the 
 partial skeleton 13 months ago in a shallow limestone 
 cave known as Liang Bua. The cave, which extends into a 
 hillside for about 130 feet, has been the subject of 
 scientific analysis since 1964. 
  
 The female skeleton and fragments from the six other 
 individuals are being stored in a laboratory in 
 Jakarta, Indonesia. The cave, which now is surrounded 
 by coffee farms, is fenced off and patrolled by guards. 
  
 Near the skeleton were stone tools and animal remains, 
 including teeth from a young stegodon, or prehistoric 
 dwarf elephant, as well as fish, birds and rodents. 
 Some of the bones were charred, suggesting they were 
 cooked. 
  
 Excavations are continuing. In 1998, stone tools and 
 other evidence found on Flores suggested the presence 
 900,000 years ago of another early human, Homo erectus. 
 The tools were found a century after the celebrated 
 discovery in the 1890s of big-boned H. erectus fossils 
 in eastern Java. 
  
 Now, researchers suggest H. erectus spread to remote 
 Flores and throughout the region, perhaps on bamboo 
 rafts. Caves on surrounding islands are the target of 
 future studies, they said. 
  
 Researchers suspect that Flores Man probably is an H. 
 erectus descendant that was squeezed by evolutionary 
 pressures. 
  
 Nature is full of mammals € deer, squirrels and pigs, 
 for example € living in marginal, isolated environments 
 that gradually dwarf when food isn't plentiful and 
 predators aren't threatening. 
  
 On Flores, the Komodo dragon and other large 
 meat-eating lizards prowled. But Flores Man didn't have 
 to worry about violent human neighbors. 
  
 This is the first time that the evolution of dwarfism 
 has been recorded in a human relative, said the study's 
 lead author, Peter Brown of the University of New 
 England in Australia. 
  
 Scientists are still struggling to identify its jumbled 
 features. 
  
 Many say its face and skull features show sufficient 
 traits to be included in the Homo family that includes 
 modern humans. It would be the eighth species in the 
 Homo category. 
  
 George Washington's Wood, for example, finds it 
 "convincing." 
  
 Others aren't sure. 
  
 For example, they say the skull is wide like H. 
 erectus. But the sides are rounder and the crown traces 
 an arc from ear to ear. The skull of H. erectus has 
 steeper sides and a pointed crown, they said. 
  
 The lower jaw contains large, blunt teeth and roots 
 like Australopithecus, a prehuman ancestor in Africa 
 more than 3 million years ago. The front teeth are 
 smaller than modern human teeth. 
  
 The eye sockets are big and round, but they don't carry 
 a prominent browline. 
  
 The shinbone in the leg shares similarities with apes. 
  
 "I've spent a sleepless night trying to figure out what 
 to do with this thing," said Schwartz. "It makes me 
 think of nothing else in this world." 
 ___ 
  
 Associated Press writers Emma Ross in London and Chris 
 Brummit in Jakarta contributed to this report. 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)