Another point: in most hunter-gatherer societies disabled or abnormal babies are killed or abandoned - people just can't afford the burden, and there is a great fear of abnormalities anyway.

Haven't the hobbits' finders responded to claims of microcephaly already by pointing out that they have found more than one hobbit-sized jawbone at the site? A freak find of microcephalic remains would be one thing; several would be quite another...

Colin Groves, David Cameron and Denise Donlon presented a paper at the conference in which they gave evidence in support of the Flores hominid being most closely related to early Homo, namely Homo habilis. However, Professor Henneberg argued that the partial skeleton was simply that of a microcephalic individual. He compared it to a case from ancient Crete.

So, we have two extremely different views. Where experts disagree, I feel that a non-expert like myself can insinuate his own suggestion: that the Flores hominid is an extreme pygmy type. Apparently, there were "proto-negritos" on Flores found in the archaeological record. Perhaps the "hobbits" were a further step down that path.

(cont.)

Unfortunately it seems to be the case that only one skeleton has been found at the Flores site. There are other bits and pieces, but nothing definitive.

I did remark at the conference that a small brain is not necessarily indicative of a lack of intelligence, the capacity to produce the tools found associated with the "hobbit" for example. I mentioned the case of Alex the African grey parrot, who has the linguistic capabilities of a two year old human, and the reasoning powers of a six year old, reportedly.

A sceptical view about the Flores individual is, however, that he or she is a case of microcephaly in a small hominid. That is, an outlier individual from an outlier group, with the result being a very small skull.

I have given my personal view, that the "hobbit" was a rainforest-adapted Homo sapiens with a very small mass of skeletal material (including a tiny cranium) aimed at minimising calcium requirements in a low-UV, and hence low vitamin D and calcium absorption, situation.

Julian

The size of the other animals on the island (tiny elephants and giant rats, e.g.) suggest an environment in which small organisms deviate up and large organisms deviate down to some island average. This context adds plausibility to the small man-primate conjecture.