Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman writes about the latest controversy surrounding Homo floresiensis, the “hobbits” whose bones were discovered in Indonesia in 2004. (Link to previous BB posts about the hobbits.) Is Homo floresiensis really an extinct species or just the skull of Homo sapiens with a genetic disorder called microcephaly? Background on the controversy in this New York Times article. At Cryptomundo, Coleman quotes conversations he had with Peter Brown, one of the researchers behind the hobbit discovery. From the post:
Reacting strongly to the latest round of attacks on Homo floresiensis being conducted more in the media than in reasoned reality, Peter Brown, one of the primary researchers of the new species has told Cryptomundo: “Some people see exactly what they want to see, for a variety of reasons.”
Distracters, the media, and the debunkers in this current onslaught against the discovery are completely ignoring the evidence of the possibly nine Homo floresiensis individuals discovered at the site, says Brown. “There are no modern humans with the postcranial dimensions of Homo floresiensis and the second mandible is well outside the range of human variation,” Brown told Cryptomundo.