The Hobbit Debate

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05/08/2009

May. 08, 2009

The Hobbit Debate

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Watch the Video - Hobbit Bones Hold Clues To Its Origin »

When the bones of an unusually small hominin were discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, the find sparked a battle in anthropological circles: were the bones the remnants of a new species of hominin, previously unknown to science, yet alive as recently as 12000 years ago -- or were the bones in the cave from modern humans suffering from microcephaly and other bone deformations? The argument over the bones, which have come to be nicknamed 'hobbits' due to their small size and large feet, has continued in the scientific literature ever since. This week in the journal Nature, a team of researchers make the case that Homo floresiensis was indeed a distinct species, and that the hobbits may be even more distantly related to modern humans than previously thought. We'll talk about the hobbit studies and what they tell us about human evolution.

Produced by Flora Lichtman, Correspondent and Managing Editor, Video

Guests

William L. Jungers
Distinguished Teaching Professor and Chairman

Department of Anatomical Sciences

Stony Brook University Medical Center

Stony Brook, NY
Daniel E. Lieberman
Professor,
Department of Anthropology

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA

May. 08, 2009