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'Hobbit' hominids were dwarf cretins, say scientists
Recent photograph of a sculpture of a female of one of the diminutive "hobbit" hominids whose fossilised remains were found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island four years ago. The representation was made by Elisabeth Daynes under strict scientific scrutiny. Australian scientists say the hobbits are H. sapiens who were born without a functioning thyroid.(AFP/HO/Philippe Plailly)
by Richard Ingham
PARIS (AFP) - Anthropologists have fired another salvo in a feud about diminutive "hobbit" people whose fossilised remains were found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island four years ago.
Combatting a bid to have the hobbits enshrined as a separate branch of the human family tree, they argue the tiny cave-dwellers were simply Homo sapiens who became stunted and retarded as a result of iodine deficiency in pregnancy.