Casts of 'hobbit' skull arrive at Wollongong

Feb 06, 2006

The announcement last year of the University of Wollongong's role in the discovery of a new human species, Homo floresiensis, (nicknamed the 'Hobbit') off the Indonesian island of Flores triggered a worldwide sensation in scientific and media circles.

Now two casts of the skull of the female Hobbit unearthed at Flores have arrived at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Wollongong.

The casts, made from silicon gel, were constructed based on a CT scan of the original unearthed skull just before the original skull was, unfortunately, permanently damaged. A laser was used to craft out the replica silicon gel skulls.

The damaged original skull is in Jakarta, Indonesia.

One of the model casts will stay with Dr Chris Turney from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the other will go on display in the foyer of UOW’s Sciences Building along with a painting depicting how a hunter-gatherer ‘hobbit’ may have appeared.

Dr Turney is part of a team from UOW which used its world-class expertise in helping to date the age of the skeletal remains.

The discovery of Homo floresiensis has been hailed as one of the most important early hominin discoveries of the last 100 years.

The brain size of the Hobbit is around 0.4 litres (comparable in size to a chimpanzee). Modern humans have brain sizes of around 1.2 litres.