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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: "Hobbit" Humans Were Diseased Cretins, Study Suggests


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Human bones (top), stegodont teeth (right), and stone tools were found in a cave on the island of Flores in Indonesia in 2003.

A controversial new study suggests that the fossils of hobbit-like humans found in the cave may have been severely malnourished modern humans that suffered from cretinism, a disease of the thyroid gland.

Photograph by Kenneth Garrett/NGS