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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: "Hobbit" Was Own Species, Not Diseased Human, Brain Study Says


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A computer image depicts the brains (red) of a modern human with microcephaly, a neurological disorder characterized by a small brain (left), and the fossil specimen of the "hobbit," Homo floresiensis (right).

A new study of brain shape says that Homo floresiensis was a member of its own unique species and was not a microcephalic human.

Image courtesy of Kirk E. Smith, Electronic Radiology Laboratory, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology