Once upon a Hobbit - The Fossil Chronicles - page 73

journals in the world for announcing major new discoveries—the very
journal in which Dart had described Taung and established the new
genus and species Australopithecus africanus. 1 The competition to publish
in Nature is fierce. Researchers lucky enough to have an article accepted
are warned that they must keep their findings secret until the editors at
Nature say they can talk (or write) about them. Nature usually does not
lift this embargo until the day before the article is published. (Authors
know that their article may be withdrawn if someone spills the beans
before then, which tends to keep them in line.)
Hamlin proceeded to tell me about a new human species, Homo flo-
resiensis, which had been unearthed in a cave on the island of Flores,
in Indonesia. Fragments of at least eight skeletons had been recovered,
and they were remarkably tiny compared with those of prehistoric
humans or even living pygmies. Despite having a miniscule ape-sized
brain, Homo floresiensis was associated with stone tools and had hunted
a pygmy species of stegodont (a now-extinct mammal related to mast-
odons, mammoths, and elephants) and giant carnivorous lizards known
as Komodo dragons. Fragments of the new species had been excavated
near butchered and charred animal bones that hinted at the use of fire
and cooking. Plus, some of the individuals had lived as recently as 17,000
years ago—a mere yesterday when one considers that hominins have
been around for some 5 million to 7 million years. 2 This was a shock.
Until now, Homo sapiens was believed to have been the only hominin
species that lived so recently.
Incredulous, I asked, “Are you making this up?” Hamlin laughed and
assured me that he was not. In fact, he had just returned from filming in
Indonesia for a forthcoming television special called Tiny Humans: The
Hobbits of Flores. 3 The 18,000-year-old type specimen was a tiny skeleton
of a grown woman nicknamed Hobbit, after one of the heroes of J. R. R.
To l k i e n 's The Lord of the Rings, because she had stood only three to three
and a half feet tall. (She was also more formally known by her museum
number, LB1, which indicated the limestone cave, Liang Bua, in which
her remains were found.)