09.20.07
Hobbits
Wrist bones bolster hobbit statusApe-like wrists suggest that Homo floresiensis was a distinct species.
See also: Hobbits
The trapezoids and surrounding wrist bones of African apes, older hominins and the Hobbit are arranged as in the left picture. In modern humans and Neanderthals they are more like as shown in the right diagram. Click here for larger Image.
More evidence has emerged supporting the theory that the ‘hobbits’, which lived on the remote Indonesian island of Flores tens of thousands of years ago, were indeed a unique species.Painstaking study of Homo floresiensis wrist bones shows that their wrists were far more primitive than ours — suggesting that they were evolutionarily distinct from modern humans. The hobbits’ wrists are so primitive-looking, say the researchers, that tracing our shared heritage would involve going back millions of years, perhaps to very birth of the genus Homo in Africa.