• Bones have been unearthed on the Indonesian island of Flores that offer fresh evidence that the diminutive ancient human cousin Homo floresiensis, nicknamed “the hobbit”, is a new species.

  The discovery helps to settle a bitter dispute about whether the hobbits were diseased or pygmy modern humans, or belonged to a separate branch of humanity’s family tree.

  Scientists now have remains from at least nine individuals. The new bones are of a similar size to last year’s discovery of a female just over three feet tall, suggesting that all the bones come from a well-established population of small hominids.

  This virtually rules out the possibility that they were like modern humans but suffering from microcephaly, which stunts brain growth, as some scientists have argued. It is highly unlikely that nine microcephalics would have been found without any remains of humans of normal stature. The bones’ dimensions are also wrong for a pygmy Homo sapiens.

  The discoveries, by a team from the University of New England and the University of Wollongong in Australia, are published in the journal Nature.

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