'Hobbit' remains in Oxford museum
A replica skull of a 18,000 year old 'hobbit' man has been placed in the University's Museum of Natural History.
The remains were found on the tiny Indonesian island of Flores by Australian archeologists, who originally mistook the bones for those of a three year-old child.
The bones are from the homo floresiensis species, a distant relation to humans.
The island dwellers were only a metre in height, with small brains amongst other distinguishing features.
Curator of geological collections at the museum, Eric Seissert, told The Oxford Student that the exhibit was proving popular. "This is one of the most important palæoanthropological finds of its type for a hundred years. People seem to be enjoying it"
The midget man, one of the smallest known species of the homo genus, was dubbed 'the hobbit' after the famous J.R.R. Tolkein characters, featured in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
27th Jan 2005