tall, had a chimpanzee-sized brain and was substantially different

from modern humans.

It shared the isolated island to the east of Java with miniature

elephants and Komodo dragons. The creature walked upright, probably

evolved into its dwarf size because of environmental conditions and

coexisted with modern humans in the region for thousands of years.

"It is an extraordinarily important find," Professor Chris Stringer,

of the Natural History Museum in London, told a news conference on

Wednesday. "It challenges the whole idea of what it is that makes us

human."

Peter Brown of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia,

and his colleagues made the discovery of the skull and other bones,

and miniature tools in September 2003 while looking for records of

modern human migration to Asia. They reported the finding in the

science journal Nature.

"Finding these hominins on an isolated island in Asia, and with

elements of modern human behavior in tool making and hunting, is

truly remarkable and could not have been predicted by previous

discoveries," Brown said in a statement.

Local legends tell of hobbit-like creatures existing on islands long

ago but there has been no evidence of them.

DESCENDENT OF HOMO ERECTUS

The hominin family tree, which includes humans and pre-humans,

diverged from the chimpanzee line about 7 million years ago. Early

African hominins walked upright, were small and had tiny brains.

The new species, dubbed "Flores man," is thought to be a descendent

of Homo erectus, which had a large brain, was full-sized and spread

out from Africa to Asia about 2 million years ago.

The new species became isolated on Flores and evolved into its dwarf

form to conform with conditions, such as food shortages. Flores,

which was probably never connected to the mainland, was home to a

variety of exotic creatures including a dwarf form of the primitive

elephant Stegodon.

Modern humans had reached Australia about 45,000 years ago but they

may not have passed through Flores. The scientists suspect the new

species became extinct after a massive volcanic eruption on the

island about 12,000 years ago.

Brown and his colleagues have found the remains of seven other dwarf

individuals at the same site since the first find.

"The other individuals all show similar characteristics, and over a

time range that now extends from as long ago as 95,000 years to as

recently as 13,000 years ago -- a population of hobbits that seemed

to disappear at about the same time as the pygmy elephants that they

hunted," said Bert Roberts, one of the authors of the Nature study.

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=6631254

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