I'm not a Hobbit ….

…. I’m just not very well.

Scientists around the world are probably walking around with long faces now that their earth shattering discovery is in serious doubt.

THE discovery of a previously unknown species of prehistoric human – nicknamed the Hobbit – may not be as extraordinary as first thought, with a group of scientists arguing the fossil remains are in fact those of a deformed modern man.

According to this article at news.com.au, the remains were not what they may have immediately thought. Rather than a new species, it is claimed that it was just a very sick examplae of modern man.

The find, hailed as the most significant archaelogical discovery in a century when it was revealed by Australian and Indonesian scientists last month, promised to rewrite the history of humankind – the metre-tall, ape-like being lived as recently as 11,000 BC, up to 40,000 years after modern humans, or homo sapiens, appeared.

But according to a report in the reputable Science magazine, a small but vocal group of scientists argues the skeleton dubbed homo floresiensis is a modern human with the disease microcephaly – a deformity characterised by a small brain and head.

“They jumped the gun,” paleopathologist Maciej Henneberg of the University of Adelaide says.

I guess it’ll give the scientists from both sides something to argue over for a few years.

Posted by Rodney Olsen



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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He has worked in radio at Perth's media ministry Sonshine for over 25 years and has previously worked at ministries such as Compassion Australia and Bible Society.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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