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The skeletal remains that were found in Liang Bua cave on the Central Indonesian island of Flores have created so much buzz among scientists after it has been theorized that the said remains may be that of a new and previously-unknown species of humans which were dubbed as Homo floresiensis. However, recent analysis which was done by a team of Indonesian, American, Australian and Chinese researchers has rejected this 2004 theory of "hobbits".
In the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group of scientists proposed that these skeletal remains belonged to the Homo erectus species of human ancestors who first inhabited Flores about 840,000 years ago, a date which was established by analyzing stone tools that were also found on the island. The most complete skeleton, dubbed as "LB1", actually suffered from microcephaly, a neurological disorder which is characterized by the circumference of the head which is smaller than average for the person's age and gender. Scientists believe that this may also be due to the "island effect" in the place which shrinks large-bodied species over time, thus turning Homo erectus into the dwarf-sized Homo florensiensis.
As for LB1's unusual cranium, face, teeth and stature, Robert B. Eckhardt, a professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology at the Pennsylvania State University, and his team found that some of these keys features are still present in Flores' indigenous Rampasasa pygmies (sometimes spelled Rampapasa), one community of which is located less than a mile from the Liang Bua cave.
Eckhardt said that " to establish a new species, paleoanthropologists are required to document a unique complex of normal traits not found in any other species, but this was not done. The normal traits of LB1 were not unique, and its unusually small braincase was not normal."
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