A team of paleoneurologists created a 3D model of the braincase of BB mascot Homo floresiensis, the tiny species of human whose remains were discovered last year on an Indonesian island. While some scientists have argued that the skull is not that of a new species but rather a human with a birth defect, the "scaling of brain to body isn't at all what we'd expect to find in Pygmies, and the shape is all wrong to be a microcephalic," Florida State University paleoneurologist Dean Falk told National Geographic. "This is something new." The latest study also indicates that the 3-foot-high humans were smarter than one might think:
Despite having very small brains—roughly the size of a chimpanzee's—they appear to have hunted animals twice their size, made stone tools for hunting and butchering, and used fire for cooking."It's remarkable. We've always been taught and thought that as humans evolved, the bigger the brain, the better they are," said Charles Hildebolt, a physical anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
"If this little creature actually made the tools and was using the tools, built the fire and was using the fire, then that really tips human evolution upside down and changes the way we have to think about brain evolution. It may indicate that the reorganization of the brain was just as important and may be even more important than size."
Link (Thanks to all the readers who sent in various H. Floresiensis links.)
