An Indonesian paleontologist is keeping the remains of the tiny humans away from other paleontologists. Let the paleontologist war begin!
They may be tiny, but the hobbits — the extinct one-metre-high human species whose discovery rocked the palaeontology world last month – are provoking a giant barney among Australian and Indonesian scientists.
One of Indonesia's leading palaeontologists, Professor Teuku Jacob of Gadjah Mada University in Jakarta, has grabbed the hobbit remains and locked them away in his safe, refusing to let other scientists study them.
In addition, he rejected the widespread view that the hobbits are a separate human species, claiming they are a pygmy form of modern humans who suffered microcephaly, a disorder that produces a small brain.
The Australian scientists who dug up the bones of the hobbits, officially dubbed Homo floresiensis, have pleaded with Professor Jacob to return the bones as they may contain vital DNA clues as to their exact ancestry. The seven skeletons were found last year in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores by an Australian and Indonesian team.
