Yes JRR, there WERE hobbits

[Psychicwolf]

Homo floresiensis: the Hobbit

Homo floresiensis is a species of dwarf human discovered at the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 (Brown et al. 2004, Morwood et al. 2004, Lahr and Foley 2004). H. floresienses was only about 1 meter in height and fully bipedal, with a very small brain size of 417cc. The skull has human-like teeth with a receding forehead and no chin. floresiensis fossils have been discovered from 38,000 to 18,000 years ago, though archeological evidence suggests it lived at Liang Bua between at least 95,000 and 13,000 years ago. It used stone tools and fire, and hunted pygmy elephants (mostly juvenile ones), Komodo dragons, and the giant rats found on Flores. Its discoverers believe that floresiensis is a dwarf form of Homo erectus - it is not uncommon for dwarf forms of large mammals to evolve on islands.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/flores.html

and now a 4th hominid!

Gene research reveals fourth human species

A fourth type of hominid, besides Neanderthals, modern humans and the tiny “hobbit”, was living as recently as 40,000 years ago, according to research published in the journal Nature.

The discovery by Svante Pääbo and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is based on DNA sequences from a finger bone fragment discovered in a Siberian cave.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8f3e63fe-3758 ... abdc0.html

[racehorse]

Very interesting.

Thanks for posting this, Psychicwolf.

[badspell]

Not only a great article but really cool bear picture in your this represents me space.

[Psychicwolf]

Badspell, the bear picture was taken last fall on the lower part of my property that goes down to the river. He was a pretty young bear, just lookin' for some huckleberries, which I have a ton of down in that corner.