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Nature/Flores Discovery/Advisory
Dear Editor:
Today Nature Magazine releases a study that redefines human evolution.
Australian and Indonesian archaeologists have unearthed a new
human-like species - a cousin just 1 meter tall, with a brain
one-third the size of that of modern humans - who lived only 18,000
years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores.
The team found a skeleton, thought to be a female, along with
remains from at least seven other individuals - nicknamed "hobbits"
by their discoverers.
Nature News Service reports the discovery and puts it in context
in four articles, with art, that reflect the authority of the
scientists who were there.
-- Little Lady of Flores Forces Rethink of Human Evolution. If
unexpected branches of humanity are still being found today, and
lived so recently, then who knows what else might be out there?
500 words.
-- The Flores Find. A Q&A. How did the archaeologists make
the discovery, and has it changed their ideas about human evolution?
900 words.
-- A Stranger from Flores. Because of climate change or the impact
of modern humans, who began to spread from Africa around 100,000
years ago, the strange story of Flores man eventually ended in
extinction. But modern humans must surely have encountered this
tiny relative of ours.
-- Flores, Cryptozoology and God. The Flores find lends more credibility
to stories of other mythical, human-like creatures like yetis.
Every week, Nature News Service provides 10 to 12 articles - brief,
accessible and lively - on scientific breakthroughs in all fields,
from Nature and from the enterprise reporting of the staff at
news@nature.com. The Nature
News Service also includes photos for at least two articles each
week.
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