Back in 2004, archaeologists discovered the remains of an ancient human in Flores, Indonesia that some have said is proof of a new species. Researchers called the find homofloresiensis, a name suggesting a previously unknown species of human, and nicknamed the "hobbit."
New research suggests that the hobbit, or LB1, was not "the most important find in human evolution" during the last 100 years, but just the remains of a homosapien with Down syndrome.
Though a number of specimens were found during the discovery inside the Liang Bua Cave, just one had a complete cranium, according to a Penn State University press release.
Since the cranium, and a pair of shortened thighbones, were so small, scientists have said the remains could be evidence of a lineage of early humans different from people previously discovered on the islands of the South Pacific.
A new, more accurate measurement of that cranium suggests it was not quite as small as scientists first believed, one of the many factors that has experts believing a new species wasn't discovered.
"The difference is significant, and the revised figure falls in the range predicted for a modern human with Down syndrome from the same geographic region," said Robert B. Eckhardt, a professor of developmental genetics and evolution at Penn State, according to the release.
LB1's short thighbones didn't only match the height reduction seen in Down syndrome, Eckhardt said, but when corrected, statistically for normal growth, they would "yield a stature" of approximately four feet, a figure matched by some humans living on Flores and other nearby areas.
The new research is actually two studies conducted by international teams of scientists. The studies were published together in a recent edition of the journal PNAS.
"The Liang Bua Cave skeletal remains demonstrate the existence on Flores, Indonesia, of a small-bodied Australomelanesian population that conforms with its regional and temporal provenance," researchers said in one of the papers. "Against this background, the abundant pathological signs that mark cranial and postcranial morphology of the LB1 individual establish a very high probability of that specimen manifesting DS."
The researchers said that the Down-like characteristics are only present in LB1, and not in other Liang Bua skeletal remains, further evidence of the skull's abnormality.
"This work is not presented in the form of a fanciful story," Eckhardt said, "but to test a hypothesis: Are the skeletons from Liang Bua cave sufficiently unusual to require invention of a new human species? Our reanalysis shows that they are not."
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