The name literally means ‘little man’ in Bahasa Indonesia (maybe the same creature as ebu gogo?)…people at my field site in Borneo claim to have seen this small man-ape in the forest from time to time, although they question themselves as to whether they have just seen a gibbon walking on the ground!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3734946.stm

You can bet that scientists all over the Indomalayan region are going to note the locations of previously unexplored caves. Although given the condition of these bones of H. floresiensis, one needs to tread lightly (or not at all without the help of an paleontologist)! There are literally thousands of islands in the region, so there must be other bones (and possibly hominid species) awaiting discovery.

[Quote]B: It’s strikingly different from everything ever found with H. erectus. Apart from this short, small-brained thing surviving until 14,000 or 18,000 years ago, its association with these stone tools is the other most remarkable thing about the site. It’s something the critics will take a very close look at because there are three possibilities. Either Homo sapiens, of which there is no [fossil] evidence, was making these stone tools; or this small [hominid] learned to make the stone tools from H. sapiens in some way; or it was actually making the tools itself. I think it was making the stone tools. We have the same tools going from 94,000 years ago until 18,000 or 14,000 years ago–no change in technology, no change in materials, consistent from the bottom to where the skeleton was found. So on account of the evidence, the association seems fairly clear. Maybe something else will turn up at Liang Bua in the end, but at present there is nothing. The only [hominid] we’re finding in association with stone tools is this small thing.[/Quote]

…so Quite convincing linkage between the tools and the hobbits. What a puzzle!

Cool write-up. A few quibbles. Current best bet on the local extinction of H.floresiensis is the volcanic detonation that wiped out the other mini-mammals on the island c. 13,000 bp. If H.sapiens did in the hobbits then why did they leave the mini-stegodons and the like?

However from what the researchers who made the find have said the stone tools found with the homs are proportionately reduced from regular erectus-style tools – hence made for little hands. No evidence is yet apparent for a violent end, as much as certain paradigms are praying for such.

The intriguing aspect of the freshness of the remains are the local legends of “ebu gogo” who are described in terms very similar to H.floresiensis. Hence the current thought that the hobbits lived on until the arrival of the Dutch. Some – even Chris Stringer in “Nature” – have gone so far as to wonder if they’re still lurking around the Javanese bush.

“…we predict that we should never find elephants on any Pacific islands, even though they would survive well there.”

Apparently finding elephants on Pacific Islands would be a falsification of macroevolutionary theory.

Quoting from this blog:

“Boats seem to have been essential for getting to Flores, which speaks of a pretty impressive mental capacity for Homo erectus . (On the other hand, lizards and elephants and other land animals got to the island without a boat–perhaps by swimming being swept away on logs during storms.)”

Whoops! One can imagine how a Creationist speaker would love to add this to his arsenal. First the evolutionists say that finding elephants on a remote Pacific island would “falsify” the theory, then, when elephants are found, the explanation is that they were swimming while holding on to logs in storms. Of course! The theory of evolution has been saved again!

Since this homonid evolved before the end of the last ice age, would it have necessarily have been isolated by water? I am not familiar with the exact geographical changes around the island of Flores, but I thought many of the land masses of Indonesia were connected prior to the end of the ice age 15,000 years ago.