BY JIM BRACE-THOMPSON
In 2004, the world of human paleontology was rocked by a little critter with the scienti c name of Homo oresiensis and the informal name of “the hobbit”. Found on the Indonesian island of Flores and dated at between 50,000 and 190,000 years old, such a new species of humans was completely unexpected—and Thercely debated. A human relative just three-and-a-half feet tall with a small brain, weak chin, and shoulder, arm and wrist bones more chimp-like than human? “Say it ain’t so, Joe!” shouted some scientists who had di culty accepting this strange being as a secondcousin- once-removed.
Well, those doubters get to shout all over again…A paper published in the journal Nature in April introduced yet another strange new member of the human family: Homo luzonensis, named for the Philippine island of Luzon where it was found. Dated at 50,000 to 80,000 years old, these fossils show another rather diminutive critter, one with curved nger and toe bones suggestive of a life lived in trees as well as on land.