Evidence is mounting for the argument that the 'hobbit' of Flores Island was not the same species as modern humans.

The first of the 17,000-year-old Homo floresiensis fossils were discovered in 2003; since then there has been fierce debate over whether they represent a new diminutive Homo species, or Homo sapiens with the medical condition cretinism. Peter Brown at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, analysed H. floresiensis traits such as brain mass, skeletal proportions and tooth development, and compared them with those of people with cretinism.

Brown found no signs in the small-bodied, small-brained H. floresiensis of the delayed growth associated with cretinism. He says that earlier studies may have confused damage caused by the fossilization process with features of the disorder.

J. Hum. Evol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.10.011 (2012)