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Nature 459, 41-42 (7 May 2009) | doi:10.1038/459041a; Published online 6 May 2009

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Palaeoanthropology: Homo floresiensis from head to toe

Daniel E. Lieberman1

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Fossils of tiny ancient humans, found on the island of Flores, have provoked much debate and speculation. Evidence that they are a real species comes from analyses of the foot and also — more surprisingly — of dwarf hippos.

Good science requires a healthy dose of tempered scepticism — at its heart, the process involves trying to reject proposed hypotheses. So it was understandable that the announcement1, 2 in 2004 of the discovery of a species of dwarfed hominin, Homo floresiensis, from the island of Flores, Indonesia, stimulated a range of opinions, many of them sceptical, that the fossils constituted a new species and were not the consequence of some pathological condition.

  1. Daniel E. Lieberman is in the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
    Email: danlieb@fas.harvard.edu

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