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Hobbit skull in tug of war

Monday, 29 November 2004

Anna Salleh
ABC Science Online
25 November 2004

A diplomatic stoush between Indonesian and Australian scientists over access to the Hobbit-human's skull could be resolved by the end of the year. The team that discovered the Hobbit wants to analyse DNA from the skull, which could help settle how human the creature actually is.

But Australian members of the team that discovered the Hobbit were recently surprised that the skull had been given to someone outside the team.

Professor Richard Roberts of the University of Wollongong and one of the Australian scientists involved in the discovery, told ABC Science Online the team thought the skull was being kept safely in a locked drawer at the Indonesian Centre for Archaeology in Jarkarta.

But about two weeks ago they discovered Indonesia's premier palaeontologist, Professor Teuku Jacob of Gadjah Mada University, was looking after it.

Jacob had previously challenged the idea that Hobbits were a new species of human and argued instead they were a sub-species of Homo sapiens.

"The normal protocol is to seek permission from the centre where the specimen is being kept and make a time to see it on the premises," Roberts said. "A specimen is rarely transported away because it's too delicate."

Roberts and team want the skull to carry out further tests including sampling DNA from the teeth, which would help settle the debate over the creature's origins once and for all.

The team made headlines last month with the announcement of a new species of hominid, they called H. floresiensis, after the Indonesian island of Flores where it was found.

But not all scientists agree it is a new species. Some, including Jacob, say it is more like a modern human, albeit it one with a brain disorder that gave it a small grapefruit-sized head.

Return of the skull

Dr Thomas Sutikna of the Indonesian Centre for Archaeology in Jakarta and the Indonesian team member who actually discovered the skull on the Indonesian island of Flores, said Jacob had borrowed the skull to do "more analysis" and that it would be returned soon.

"It is possible that by the end of December the skull will be returned," he told ABC Science Online from Jakarta.

Sutikna said he had met Associate Professor Mike Morwood of the University of New England, another of the Australian scientists involved in the discovery, who flew to Indonesia this week to negotiate access to the skull.

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1251547.htm

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