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US study supports theory of Lost World of Little People

March 04, 2005

morwood.jpgThe first technical study of the brain of Homo floresiensis — the tiny woman discovered on the island of Flores by an international expedition led by archaeologist Professor Mike Morwood from the University of New England — shows anatomical features consistent with higher cognitive processing, such as taking initiative and planning.
Homo floresiensis is a new species of human whose 18,000-year-old remains were excavated from Liang Bua, a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores; her discovery was announced last October and made international news.
Now Dean Falk, Professor of Anthropology at Florida State University, has led a team that created the first virtual endocast of the tiny human’s diminutive braincase, a reconstruction using three-dimensional technology to reproduce details of the external surface of the brain.

Among other discoveries, the team found that the Homo floresiensis brain’s frontal lobe, an area thought in humans to be involved in higher thinking processes, contains significant swelling. The results of the study are reported in the March 3 issue of the journal Science.
The analysis of the endocast by Falk's team fully supports the conclusions reached in the original Nature paper, which outlined UNE Professors Morwood and Peter Brown’s work on Homo Floresiensis.
Of the find, Thomas Sutikna, from the Indonesian Centre for Archaeology (who directed the archaeological excavations at Liang Bua), said:
“Every aspect of Homo floresiensis seems to yield more surprises, but the new findings about [Homo Floresiensis’ brain explain how she and her kin could hunt little elephants (Stegodon), make sophisticated stone artifacts and use fire. What else they were up to during their 800,000 years of isolation on the island of Flores will be incredibly interesting.”
Falk and a team at Washington University’s Mallinckrodt Institute used CT data gathered in Indonesia from the Homo floresiensis skull to create a virtual endocast of the woman’s braincase. From a physical model of the skull, Falk also made a physical endocast out of latex to further her analysis. Falk has been creating physical endocasts for 30 years.
The virtual endocast process reproduced details of external brain morphology, including sulci (brain grooves), vessels, sinuses, cranial capacity and shape that were imprinted within the living creature’s braincase. The team then compared Hobbit’s endocast to those of an adult female chimpanzee, an adult female Homo erectus, a contemporary woman, and a microcephalic (human with an abnormally small skull). Female specimens were chosen because the original Homo floresiensis specimen was female.
Although the Homo floresiensis brain is the size of a chimp’s, Falk said its appearance immediately reminded her of that of Homo erectus, the human ancestor that arose about 1.8 million years ago and is known to have lived in Africa, Europe and Asia.
For more information phone Professor Peter Brown on 6773 3064 or
Lydia Roberts on 6773 2779.

Posted by Lydia Roberts at March 4, 2005 10:13 AM