An international team of researchers has just announced the discovery of 700,000-year-old remains that are related to a tiny species of human ancestors, lovingly referred to as ‘hobbits’.

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-just-found-the-remains-of-a-brand-new-hobbit-ancestor?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1

Excellent.

Do the Tolkein heirs get paid?

dv said:

Do the Tolkein heirs get paid?

I’m surprised they haven’t jacked up about the lack of permission to use the name.

Homo floresiensis evolved its miniature body proportions during the initial 300,000 years on Flores, and is thus a dwarfed side lineage that ultimately derives from Homo erectus,

Everyone agrees with that. The new remains are fragmentary, so detailed reconstruction isn’t possible. But being 600,000 years earlier than the previous remains is very significant.

“Homo floresiensis lived concurrently with Homo sapiens and Homo erectus, who were two towers compared to floresiensis,” said van den Bergh. “We don’t yet have a systematic analysis of their mutual relationships. We know they were part of the same fellowship but it would be good to have one rule to ring them all.”

dv said:

“Homo floresiensis lived concurrently with Homo sapiens and Homo erectus, who were two towers compared to floresiensis,” said van den Bergh. “We don’t yet have a systematic analysis of their mutual relationships. We know they were part of the same fellowship but it would be good to have one rule to ring them all.”

fellowship
one ring to rule them all…