Date:

Friday 4 April 2008

Time:

2.00 – 3.00pm

Location:

Room B1.031, Library (B1), JCU Smithfield campus, McGregor Road, Smithfield, CAIRNS

Videoconferenced to Room DA009-002, JCU Townsville Campus

Summary:

In 2003 remains of particularly small fossil humans were found on the island of Flores in Indonesia. In 2004 the evidence was published in the prestigious international science journal, Nature, with two articles, one on the archaeology with Mike Morwood as the lead author and one on the physical anthropology with Peter Brown (also at the University of New England) as the lead author. They proposed a new species, Homo floresiensis, the nickname for which soon became the ‘Hobbits’.

These fossil humans were only about 1 metre tall, and they also had especially small but otherwise developed (i.e. convoluted and complicated) brains. Criticism of the papers suggested that the ‘Hobbits’ suffered from a genetic disorder which caused microcephaly, but modern microcephalic individuals have simple, smooth-surfaced brains and are rare.

Further work has revealed the remains of some 12 individuals, in other words, a population of little people. Their ancestry might lie in Africa some 2 to 3 million years ago rather than in the locally based Indonesian fossil humans known as Homo erectus, as was first proposed. Mike has also recently published a book about the ‘Hobbits’, and many more papers are in the pipeline.

Speaker:

Professor Mike Morwood

Australian Co-leader of the ‘Hobbits’ International Research Team

University of Wollongong and University of New England

Presented by:

Faculty of Arts, Education and Social Sciences

Contact:

Everyone welcome. For further information contact John Campbell, Tel: (07) 4042 1395 or E-mail: john.campbell@jcu.edu.au