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Article: 'Hobbit' might have been a modern human with a growth disorder
- Article from:
- The Hindustan Times
- Article date:
- April 21, 2008
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Report from Asian News International brought to you by HT Syndication.
Canberra, April 21 -- The discovery of a root canal in the remains of a 'hobbit', a tiny prehistoric human, has fuelled speculations among scientists that the skeleton might not have represented an 18,000-year-old new species, but was just a modern human with a growth disorder.
The 'hobbits' have been named after the diminutive characters of famous author J.R.R.Tolkein's epic saga "Lord of the Rings".
Most paleoanthropologists believe that the hobbit belongs to a new species of human, Homo floresiensis.
But now comes word that the specimen used to define the species - a largely complete female skeleton known as LB1 - ...