May 19, 2006 When scientists found 18,000-year-old bones of a
small, humanlike creature on the Indonesian island of Flores in
2003, they concluded that the bones represented a new species in
the human family tree that they named Homo floresiensis. Their
interpretation was widely accepted by the scientific community
and heralded by the popular press around the world. Because of
its very short stature, H. floresiensis was soon dubbed the
"Hobbit." Increasingly, however, this controversial conclusion
is being questioned. In a Technical Comment to be published in
the May 19, 2006, issue of Science magazine, scientists led by
Robert D. Martin, PhD, Field Museum Provost and world-class
primatologist, say that the bones in question do not represent a
new species at all. A far more likely explanation is that the
bones belonged to a modern human who suffered from microcephaly,
a pathological condition that causes small brain size, often
associated with short stature. The proposed new hominid species
is based primarily