Flores humans: more evidence of a new species

In a new paper for the Journal of Human Evolution, four experts led by Debbie Argue and including Colin Groves maintain that the remains excavated from Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores do indeed represent a new species, Homo floresiensis. The authors refute the claim that the bones of the main find, a partial adult skeleton called LB1, represent only a microcephalic modern human. Noting archaic traits from the LB1 skull, they Argue (sorry, there's an unavoidable, or at least irresistable, pun there) that, "Based on these comparisons, we conclude that it is unlikely that LB1 is a microcephalic human, and it cannot be attributed to any known species."

This debate can be followed on an excellent source, Dienekes' Anthropology Blog, http://dienekes.blogspot.com/.