"Pygmy found near home of hobbits" (2005)

The latest discovery will likely raise more controversy over the finding of Homo floresiensis, claimed by Australian scientists Mike Morwood and Peter Brown in September. They nick-named the skeleton a hobbit.

Kompas daily reported yesterday that the pygmy community had been found during an April 18-24 expedition in the village of Rampapasa, about 1km from the village of Liang Bua, where the species called Homo floresiensis was found.

The newspaper quoted Koeshardjono, a biologist who discovered the pygmy village, saying 77 families had been found there.

Teuku Jacob, a professor at Gadjah Mada University, who led the human anthropology research team, said 80 per cent of the Rampapasa villagers were small, with most male adults under 145cm and female adults about 135cm.

"The presence of the pygmy people there is both very interesting and surprising," Prof Jacob said. "For years, scientists from all over the world could only see their traces. Now we could find them living in a society.

"Mini people have been reportedly seen in Andaman and the province of Papua, but only a few remained and they have been difficult to find because they have been spreading to some areas."

In the November issue of the journal Nature, professors Morwood and Brown, who claimed the discovery together with Indonesian colleagues, said the species was thought to have evolved from Homo erectus, which spread out from Africa to Asia about two million years ago.

It became isolated on Flores and evolved into its dwarf form with a minuscule brain to conform to local conditions, such as food shortages.

The brain volume of the skeleton found is about 380 cubic centimetres, slightly smaller than a chimpanzee.

Prof Jacob, however, is challenging the claim, accusing them of committing "scientific terrorism" as the discovery was announced without the consent of the Indonesian archaeologists who participated in the find.

Maciej Henneberg, a biological anthropology and anatomy expert from the University of Adelaide, has said the dwarf-sized skeleton found on Flores last year does not represent a new species, Homo floresiensis, as claimed by professors Morwood and Brown.
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