Evolution Research - General Evolution News

From Montana State University (website): Bozeman - A fossil-hunting trip to celebrate a son's homecoming resulted in the recent discovery of an ancient sea monster in central Montana.

Believed to be approximately 70 million years old, its skull and lower jaw represent the first complete skull of a long-necked plesiosaur found in Montana, according to MSU experts. The skull is said to be one of the best specimens of its kind in North America.

'It's a very important specimen,' MSU paleontologist Jack Horner (author of "Dinosaurs Under the Big Sky": UK | US) said at the Museum of the Rockies where the fossil rests in boxes. 'We have been looking for it for a long, long time.'

Ken Olson of Lewistown said he and his son, Garrett, found the fossils in mid-August about 75 miles northeast of Lewistown. Since Horner was in Mongolia (see "MSU, Mongolian paleontologists find 67 dinosaurs in one week"), Olson said he prepared the fossils himself and delivered them to Horner about three weeks later. Olson, a retired Lutheran pastor, has long collected fossils for the museum. Two of his best finds are the large Torosaurus skulls displayed there.

Continued at "Fossils from ancient sea monster found in Montana"
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Books on Dinosaurs from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Books on Paleontology from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US [Palaeontology, Dinosaur]

Technorati: montana, state, university, bozeman, fossil, discovery, ancient, sea, monster, central, skull, jaw, plesiosaur, msu, north, america, specimen, jack, horner, dinosaurs, big, sky, fossils, lewistown, mongolia, lutheran, pastor, olson, paleontology, palaeontology, dinosaur

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 7:38 PM 0 comments

From University of Florida News: Gainesville, Florida - Genetic analysis of an obscure, worm-like creature retrieved from the depths of the North Atlantic has led to the discovery of a new phylum, a rare event in an era when most organisms have already been grouped into major evolutionary categories.

The analysis also appears to shed light on the ancestor of chordates, the backboned animals that include human beings and two small invertebrate groups closely related to one another: lancelets and tunicates.

"It's a tremendous surprise that this mysterious creature from the ocean will help us understand our distant past," said Leonid Moroz (info), a professor of neuroscience and zoology at UF's Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience near St. Augustine and one of the researchers who participated in the discovery.

Moroz and 13 other scientists report their findings today in the journal Nature.

Scientists have long been puzzled by the half-inch-long creature known by its scientific name of Xenoturbella and first retrieved from the Baltic Sea more than 50 years ago.

Continued at "New phylum sheds light on ancestor of animals, humans"
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Based on "Deuterostome phylogeny reveals monophyletic chordates and the new phylum Xenoturbellida" (Abstract)

Books on 'Genetics and Evolution' from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 9:59 PM 0 comments

From Der Spiegel, Germany: Miroslaw Orzechowski, Poland's deputy education minister, has called for Polish schools to ditch Darwinism in favor of creationism. His party is also well known for gay bashing and for wanting to introduce the death penalty...

Orzechowski is intent on keeping Darwinism from falling into the wrong heads. In a recent interview, he commented that it was "sad" that the "lie" of the evolution theories of Charles Darwin were being taught in Polish schools, and called for a debate on whether Darwin's theories should be purged from the school curriculum...

Orzechowski is not the first in the LPR to come out in favor of creationism. LPR Member of the European Parliament Maciej Giertych organized a creationism conference at the European Parliament in October, where he said Darwinism should not be taught in schools. Giertych, who is a biology professor by trade, claimed that humans had had contact with dinosaurs and that Neanderthals continue to live among us...

Full text at "Darwin under fire in Poland: Education Ministry with a Bent towards Creationism" [Intelligent Design, Religion]
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Earlier posts on this topic:

October 14th: "Keep Darwin's 'lies' out of Polish schools: education official"

October 16th: "Polish MEP calls for 'scholarly debate' on evolution (Radio Polonia Text + Audio)"

October 24th: Neanderthal man 'walks among us'

Books on Creationism from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Books on Intelligent Design from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Books on 'Science and Religion' from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 5:31 PM 0 comments

In many countries with large Muslim populations the pendulum of power is swinging away from secular (but mostly undemocratic) government back to where it was for many centuries: to Islamist regimes, and Islamic law. What does this mean for Muslim scientists and science? For a very long time, Muslim states have scored badly on measures of science and technology. Will things be any better or worse under the new Islamist governments?

Nature 'Special' Contents:

THE ISLAMIC WORLD (Interactive World Map)
NEWS FEATURES/ANALYSIS
TIMELINE
EDITORIAL
COMMENTARIES
PODCAST
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
ARCHIVE (Not Open Access at the time of writing)
EXTERNAL LINKS

Supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences

Continued at "Islam and science: 'Nature' journal special (Open Access/Free)"
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Books on 'Islam and Science' from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 2:18 PM 0 comments

Ann Arbor, Michigan: A pig-sized, tusked creature that roamed the earth some 27 million years ago represents a missing link between the oldest known relatives of elephants and the more recent group from which modern elephants descended, an international team that includes University of Michigan paleontologist William J. Sanders (homepage) has found.

The group's findings, to be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggest that mastodons and the ancestors of elephants originated in Africa, in contrast to mammals such as rhinos, giraffes and antelopes, which had their origins in Europe and Asia and migrated into Africa. The dating of the new fossil, discovered in the East African country of Eritrea, also pushes the origins of elephants and mastodons five million years farther into the past than previous records, Sanders said.

Continued at "Fossil Is Missing Link in Elephant Lineage"
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Based on the paper "A proboscidean from the late Oligocene of Eritrea, a "missing link" between early Elephantiformes and Elephantimorpha, and biogeographic implications" (Abstract)

Featured Book: "The Living Elephants: Evolutionary Ecology, Behaviour, and Conservation" by Raman Sukumar (Amazon UK | US) [Behavior]

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Technorati: ann arbor, michigan, pig, earth, missing link, elephants, university, william, j, sanders, pnas, mastodons, ancestors, africa, mammals, rhinos, giraffes, antelopes, europe, asia, new, fossil, east, african, eritrea, origins, elephant, lineage, book, living, evolutionary, ecology, behavior, conservation

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 1:44 PM 0 comments

From The Catholic Education Resource Center: Richard Dawkins appears on the The Ryan Tubridy Show of RTE radio in Dublin along with David Quinn who is one of Ireland's best known religious and social affairs commentators.

"Now, this morning, we are asking, what's wrong with religion? That's just one of the questions raised in a new book called, The God Delusion (Amazon UK | US). We're going to talk to its author - the man who's been dubbed the world's most famous, out of the closet, living atheist - Richard Dawkins."

[Text transcript follows]

Continued at: "'The God Delusion': David Quinn debates Richard Dawkins in Dublin, Ireland (Audio)"

Or listen to the audio discussion here (running time: 18 minutes approx)

Also see "Evolution: Richard Dawkins on 'The Colbert Report' (Video)"

And "Beyond Belief: New York Times Review of the 'God Delusion' (+Chapter 1 Free)" [Atheism]
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The God Delusion (Amazon UK | US)

Books on Creationism from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Books on Intelligent Design from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Books on 'Science and Religion' from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 11:42 PM 0 comments

About 350 million years ago, at the boundary of the Devonian and Carboniferous ages, the climate changed. There was no one around to record it, but there are records nonetheless in the rocks deposited by glaciers and in tissues preserved in fossils of ancient life.

"Events at the transition had terrific biological impact, marked by extinctions and the beginnings of new life forms," said Stephen Scheckler (faculty info) of Blacksburg, professor of biological sciences and geosciences at Virginia Tech. He reported on evidence of climate change that he found in the fossils of the ancestors of modern trees at the at the Geological Society of America's national meeting in Philadelphia October 22-25, 2006.

"This glaciation was not widely understood until recently," Scheckler said. "It was a worldwide event. The Europeans recognize the extinctions as the Hangenburg event, documented in a black shale deposit that contains a series of fauna changes. But the eastern United States was at a tropical latitude at that time, so the flora and fauna show less impact - but it is there. It is believed to be a time of coldness, because there was less diversity, but it is a subtle signal."

Continued at "Ancestor of Modern Trees Preserves Record of Ancient Climate Change"
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Stephen Scheckler's presentation was titled "Woody plant growth as a proxy for climate change at the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary," (Abstract).

Also see "Learning about life from the top of the world" from Virginia Tech Magazine.
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Featured Books: "Dynamical Paleoclimatology: Generalized Theory of Global Climate Change (International Geophysics)" (Amazon UK | US)

And 'Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years' - Hardcover (UK | US) | Paperback (UK | US) - see "'Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years' (Book + Audio Interview)"

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 7:26 PM 0 comments

From The Scotsman: A Loch Ness Monster theory which suggests the creature is a living dinosaur has been dealt a blow by scientists.

Many believe that Nessie is a plesiosaur, a long-necked marine reptile which sought refuge in Scotland's second-largest freshwater loch when most of the species died out 160 million years ago.

But Dr Leslie Noe, a palaeontologist at Cambridge University's Sedgwick Museum, discovered that the plesiosaur would have been unable to lift its head up, swan-like, out of the water.

Most scientists believe the creatures became extinct with the other dinosaurs, but some insist it is possible that after the last Ice Age, some plesiosaurs may have been stranded in the 23-mile-long loch, which was connected to the sea.

Continued at "Scientist pours cold water on Loch Ness dinosaur theory"
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The above news report refers to the New Scientist article "Why the Loch Ness Monster is no plesiosaur"

Watch Loch Ness live webcams (the structure in the second camera is Urquhart Castle)

Featured Books: "The Mystery of the Loch Ness Monster (Can Science Solve...?)" by Holly Wallace (Amazon Astore UK | US)

And "Plesiosaurs (Exploring Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures)" by Susan Heinrichs Gray (Amazon Astore UK | US)

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[Palaeontology, Webcam]

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 9:14 AM 0 comments

Mothering, good or bad, sticks with an individual according to a Hot Paper by McGill University researchers Michael Meaney, Ian Weaver, and Moshe Szyf. In 2004, the authors showed that in rat pups, high levels of licking, grooming, and arched-back nursing (LG-ABN) lowered the methylation state of the NGF1-A binding site of the glucocortoid exon 17 promoter, thereby increasing activation of the glucocortoid receptor gene and triggering lasting changes in the expression of genes related to stress response.

Previously, methylation state was perceived as fixed during development, says Szyf. 'In this case,' says Duke University researcher Randy Jirtle, 'Nature is nurture.'

Continued at "Epigenetics: Parentage has effects outside the genome"
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Based on "Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior" by I.C.G. Weaver et al (Full Text) [behaviour]

And "Reversal of Maternal Programming of Stress Responses in Adult Offspring through Methyl Supplementation: Altering Epigenetic Marking Later in Life" I.C.G. Weaver et al (Full Text)

Featured Book: "Chromatin and Gene Regulation: Mechanisms in Epigenetics" by Bryan Turner (Amazon UK | US)

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 7:31 AM 0 comments

From ABC News: November 1, 2006 - London (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair (10 Downing Street website) said in an interview published on Wednesday he would be worried if creationism entered mainstream teaching in British schools.

Creationism - the view that God created the world in six days as described in the Bible - has long been at the center of controversy in the United States, where conservative Christians reject Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Continued at "Widespread creationism teaching would worry UK's Tony Blair"
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The relevant "Q and A" from the interview referred to is:

Q: One subject that is of great concern to scientists is creationism. There has been a suggestion that creationism is being taught in some British schools. What are your views on this?

A: This can be hugely exaggerated. I've visited one of the schools in question and as far as I'm aware they are teaching the curriculum in a normal way. If I notice creationism becoming the mainstream of the education system in this country then that's the time to start worrying. As I've said, it's really important for science to fight the battles it needs to fight. When something like MMR arises, or stem cells, that's the time to have a real debate.

The full text of the New Scientist interview is available here or listen to it as an mp3 podcast (audio)

Featured Books: The God Delusion (Amazon UK | US) by Richard Dawkins, and "Tony Blair (Biography)" (UK | US) by Thomas M. Collins.

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 8:39 PM 0 comments

Why are there more species in the tropics than in the temperate regions of the globe? Many of the world's species live in the tropics (perhaps more than half), but the reason has been debated for more than 100 years.

Many researchers have hypothesized that climatic factors somehow cause species to originate more quickly in tropical regions. In a paper appearing in the November issue of The American Naturalist, John Wiens (homepage) and a group of researchers from Stony Brook University have shown that, contrary to expectations, species seem to evolve at similar rates in tropical and temperate regions. What causes the difference in species numbers between tropical and temperate regions is not something special about the tropics that leads to more rapid speciation, but rather that the temperate areas were colonized more recently, leaving less time for species to originate and accumulate in these regions.

Continued at "Evolution: More species in the tropics because species have been there longer"
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Based on the open access paper "Evolutionary and Ecological Causes of the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient in Hylid Frogs: Treefrog Trees Unearth the Roots of High Tropical Diversity" (Full Text)

Featured Book: "The Diversity of Life" by Edward O. Wilson (Amazon UK | US)

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[Climate, Ecology, E.O.]

Technorati: species, tropics, temporate, regions, globe, climatic, factors, american, naturalist, john, wiens, stony, brook, university, evolve, different, rates, tropical, rapid, speciation, colonized, recently, evolution, open access, evolutionary, ecological, causes, diversity, frogs, treefrog, trees, life, edward, o, wilson, e.o., climate, ecology

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 7:06 PM 0 comments

Bigfoot - The Patterson-Gimlin footage:

Jeffrey Meldrum (homepage) is a tenured professor of anatomy at Idaho State University and has recently been in the news (see "Professor's Bigfoot Research Criticized"). In this link he discusses the Patterson film shown above.

Now watch a "shake-free" version of the Patterson tape.

Other Bigfoot/Sasquatch media include "The Freeman footage" and the "The Redwoods Film"

Read Jeffrey Meldrum's paper "Midfoot Flexibility, Fossil Footprints, and Sasquatch Steps: New Perspectives on the Evolution of Bipedalism"
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Featured books: "The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates" by Loren Coleman, Patrick Huyghe (Amazon UK | US)

And "The Yowie: In Search of Australia's Bigfoot" by Tony Healy, Paul Cropper (Amazon UK | US)

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 6:49 PM 0 comments

From Norway's Aftenposten: A mysterious gelatinous ball has puzzled and fascinated researchers after undersea photographer Rudolf Svensen spotted it while diving at the mouth of the Matre fjord in Hordaland, western Norway.

On October 1 Rudolf and his brother Erling were diving when he spotted the unusual object.

"It was 50-70 centimeters (19.5-27.5 inches) in diameter and looked like a huge beach ball. It was transparent but had a kind of thick, red cord in the middle. It was a bit science-fiction," Svensen told newspaper Bergens Tidende's web site.

The Svensens contacted associate professor Torleiv Brattegard at the University of Bergen, and other experts were notified to try and solve the mystery.

Brattegard was convinced the object was organic, and possibly a species unknown to Norway.

Continued at "Undersea Mystery: What in the world is It? (Image)"
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Featured Book: "Creatures of the Deep: In Search of the Sea's Monsters and the World They Live in" (Amazon UK | US)

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 3:13 PM 0 comments

From The Detroit News: Late-term abortion, stem cell research and gay marriage. Intelligent design, affirmative action and control of the Detroit water system.

These deep-down gut issues still hold considerable sway with Michigan voters and could tip the balance in a close race for governor between incumbent Governor Jennifer Granholm (website) and Republican challenger Dick DeVos (website).

'At the end of the day, when a voter is sitting on the fence and can't decide between two candidates, then these wedge issues come into play and will tilt the voter one way or the other,' said Detroit News pollster Ed Sarpolus.

Voters such as John Harshman, a retired auto shop owner from Detroit: 'I'm a Bible person. I'm opposed to abortion, I'm against same-sex marriage. The Bible says those things are wrong,' Harshman said. 'That's one reason why I'll vote for Mr. DeVos.' (Continued at the title link) [Richard, Creationism, Politics]
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Books on Creationism from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

Books on Intelligent Design from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US

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Books on Abortion, Gay Marraige and other issues from the Science and Evolution Bookshop: UK | US (enter keyword)

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 9:37 AM 0 comments

From NBC 17: Raleigh, North Carolina: Dinosaur discovery - Paleontologists said Nancy, a duckbilled dinosaur, lived in the grasslands and forests of what was to become Montana about 67 million years ago.

Clint Boyd and a team of paleontologists from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences found about 80 percent of Nancy's skeleton, including a 400 pound skull.

It's one of the most complete fossils in the world.

It is so well preserved that scientists hope to recover soft tissue, including possible DNA.

"Preliminary results are positive. I only had a quick study, but it looks very promising. We'll be able to recover soft tissues from this dinosaur as well," said Dr. Mary Schweitzer (homepage - also see "Dinosaur Shocker" from the Smithsonian) of N.C. State.

Continued at "Local Researchers Discover 'Nancy' The Dinosaur" (contains video footage) [Palaeontology, Skin Imprint, Fossil]
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Featured Book: "Duck-Billed Dinosaurs (Meet the Dinosaurs)" (Amazon UK | US)

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 6:16 AM 0 comments

From CBC News, Canada: There may be a little Neanderthal in all of us.

That's the conclusion of anthropologists who have re-examined 30,000-year-old fossilized bones from a Romanian cave - bones that languished in a drawer since the 1950s*.

According to the researchers, these early Homo sapien bones show anatomical features that could only have arisen if the adult female in question had Neanderthal ancestors as part of her lineage.

The findings may answer nagging questions: Did modern humans and Neanderthals interbreed on a significant scale? And were the Neanderthals exterminated about 28,000 years ago - as some anthropologists contend - or did they gradually assimilate into the gene pool of people living today?

"From my perspective, the replacement vs. continuity debate that raged through the 1990s is now dead," said the study's American co-author, Erik Trinkaus (homepage), a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.

* The human bones were first identified at the Pestera Muierii (Cave of the Old Woman) cave in 1952. [Neandertal, Neandertals, Fossil, Fossils, Sapiens]

Continued at "Modern Humans, Neanderthals May Have Interbred"
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Based on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) paper:

Early modern humans from the Pestera Muierii, Baia de Fier, Romania

Abstract

The early modern human remains from the Pestera Muierii, Romania have been directly dated to {approx}30,000 radiocarbon years before present ({approx}30 ka 14C BP) ({approx}35 ka cal BP) ("calendrical" age; based on CalPal 2005) and augment a small sample of securely dated, European, pre-28 ka 14C BP ({approx}32.5 ka cal BP) modern human remains. The Muierii fossils exhibit a suite of derived modern human features, including reduced maxillae with pronounced canine fossae, a narrow nasal aperture, small superciliary arches, an arched parietal curve, zygomatic arch above the auditory porous, laterally bulbous mastoid processes, narrow mandibular corpus, reduced anterior dentition, ventral-to-bisulcate scapular axillary border, and planoconcave tibial and fibular diaphyseal surfaces. However, these traits co-occur with contextually archaic and/or Neandertal features, including a moderately low frontal arc, a large occipital bun, a high coronoid process and asymmetrical mandibular notch, a more medial mandibular notch crest to condylar position, and a narrow scapular glenoid fossa. As with other European early modern humans, the mosaic of modern human and archaic/Neandertal features, relative to their potential Middle Paleolithic ancestral populations, indicates considerable Neandertal/modern human admixture. Moreover, the narrow scapular glenoid fossa suggests habitual movements at variance with the associated projectile technology. The reproductive and scapulohumeral functional inferences emphasize the subtle natures of behavioral contrasts between Neandertals and these early modern Europeans.

Also see Trinkaus' open access paper "An early modern human from the Pestera cu Oase, Romania"

Featured Book: "Neanderthals Revisited: New Approaches and Perspectives (Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology)" (Amazon UK | US)

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News Report also covered by Kazinform (Kazakhstan)

Technorati: cbc, news, canada, neanderthal, bones, cave, homo, sapiens, ancestors, modern, humans, interbreed, neanderthals, gene pool, erik, trinkaus, anthropology, washington, university, st. louis, romania, pnas, pestera, cu, oase, muierii, old woman, vertebrate, science, origins, kazakhstan, fossil, fossils, sapiens, pnas, paleobiology, paleoanthropology, human

Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 7:05 PM 0 comments

From The Australian: Surely a chair in science and religion is a contradiction in terms?

Peter Harrison (homepage) - about to take up precisely that chair at Oxford University after many years at Bond University (Queensland, Australia) - laughs good-naturedly at the devil's advocate question. Where some see only conflict between reason and revelation, he sees also a history of co-operation embodied by pious thinkers such as Isaac Newton.

'It's important to understand that (science and religion) are separate operations but I don't think this means that they are, as (evolutionary biologist) Stephen Jay Gould would have it, quite discrete universes or 'non-overlapping magisteria',' Harrison says.

'If you say God created the world, for example, it does seem to me that that's a factual statement of some kind that may have scientific implications, and if it doesn't, you have to wonder what kind of claim it is.'

Continued at "When God and science overlap"
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Read Peter Harrison's paper "Miracles, Early Modern Science, and Rational Religion" (Full Text available via Abstract)

Featured Book: "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" by Daniel C. Dennett (Amazon UK | US)

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Permanent Link posted by John Latter @ 5:22 PM 0 comments

From the Washington Post: Washington, D.C. - If you're Happy and you know it, pat your head. That, in a peanut shell, is how a 34-year-old female Asian elephant in the Bronx Zoo showed researchers that pachyderms can recognize themselves in a mirror - complex behavior observed in only a few other species.

The test results suggest elephants - or at least the one called 'Happy' - are self-aware. The ability to distinguish oneself from others had been shown only in humans, chimpanzees and, to a limited extent, dolphins.

...In a 2005 experiment, Happy faced her reflection in an 8-by-8-foot mirror and repeatedly used her trunk to touch an "X" painted above her eye. The elephant could not have seen the mark except in her reflection.

Continued at "Mirror Test Implies Elephants Self-Aware"
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Based on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) paper "Self-recognition in an Asian elephant" (Abstract)

Also reported by the Los Angeles Times: "But do they all think they're fat?"

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It was a discovery that excited scientists and JRR Tolkien fans alike. When the skull of a tiny human-like creature was unearthed in Flores, Indonesia, in 2003, it was seen by many as evidence that an unknown humanoid species had once lived in the rainforests.

But now scientists from Roehampton University have debunked the myth of the living hobbit, claiming he was merely a human with a small head.

Dr Robert Martin and Dr Ann M. Maclarnon of the School of Human and Life Sciences at Roehampton (UK) led the team of scientists, which concluded the 18,000-year-old remains display the symptoms of microcephaly - a condition which leaves its human sufferers with an undersize skull.

Their findings will be published in scientists' forum the Anatomical Record in November. [Continued at title link] [Hobbits]

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Based on the paper:

Flores hominid: New species or microcephalic dwarf?
Robert D. Martin, Ann M. MacLarnon, James L. Phillips, William B. Dobyns
The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology
Volume 288A, Issue 11, 2006. Pages 1123-1145
DOI: 10.1002/ar.a.20389

The proposed new hominid Homo floresiensis is based on specimens from cave deposits on the Indonesian island Flores. The primary evidence, dated at 18,000 y, is a skull and partial skeleton of a very small but dentally adult individual (LB1). Incomplete specimens are attributed to eight additional individuals. Stone tools at the site are also attributed to H. floresiensis. The discoverers interpreted H. floresiensis as an insular dwarf derived from Homo erectus, but others see LB1 as a small-bodied microcephalic Homo sapiens. Study of virtual endocasts, including LB1 and a European microcephalic, purportedly excluded microcephaly, but reconsideration reveals several problems. The cranial capacity of LB1 ( 400 cc) is smaller than in any other known hominid less than 3.5 Ma and is far too small to derive from Homo erectus by normal dwarfing. By contrast, some associated tools were generated with a prepared-core technique previously unknown for H. erectus, including bladelets otherwise associated exclusively with H. sapiens. The single European microcephalic skull used in comparing virtual endocasts was particularly unsuitable. The specimen was a cast, not the original skull (traced to Stuttgart), from a 10-year-old child with massive pathology. Moreover, the calotte does not fit well with the rest of the cast, probably being a later addition of unknown history. Consideration of various forms of human microcephaly and of two adult specimens indicates that LB1 could well be a microcephalic Homo sapiens. This is the most likely explanation for the incongruous association of a small-brained recent hominid with advanced stone tools. Anat Rec Part A, 288A:1123-1145, 2006.

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