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Who Were the Hobbits?
Two million years ago, one branch in the human family tree led to the emergence of Homo sapiens. On the other branch, a diminutive human relative evolved. These tiny beings lived on a secluded tropical island as recently as 12,000 years ago, and for tens of thousands of years might even have shared their island with modern humans, ducking in the shadows and hiding in caves—like legendary hobbits.

That is the scenario upheld by Kieran McNulty, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota. His research helps prove that the three-foot-tall inhabitants of Flores Island in Indonesia were a different species in human evolution and had ancestors that far predate the arrival of modern humans 195,000 years ago. His study (with co-author Karen Baab, a researcher at Stony Brook University in New York) appeared in the online edition of the Journal of Human Evolution late last year.

McNulty’s work helps solve a mystery that began with the 2003 discovery of several partial skeletons and most of one skull in Liang Bua cave on Flores, part of the archipelago stretching east from Java. The skull, with a brain case the size of a modern chimpanzee’s, belonged to an approximately 30-year-old female. The skull dates to 18,000 years ago, though other skeletal remains found in the cave are 12,000 to 95,000 years old. Along with the bones were stone tools, charcoal, and the remains of a butchered dwarf elephant. The small hominin became known as Homo floresiensis or the “hobbit.”

The small stature of the species was surprising but not confounding to anthropologists. Because of the “island rule,” animal species on islands often become dwarfed or gigantic as they evolve to adapt to the food supply and predators. The Komodo dragon is an example of island giantism. “We’ve seen this again and again on islands,” McNulty says. “The exciting thing was we had never seen it with humans.”

Controversy has surrounded the Flores skull since its discovery. Some scientists have insisted it belonged to a modern human afflicted by disease, such as microcephaly, causing an abnormally small skull. Others contended that it represented a previously unknown human species. “The idea was out there that these derive from Homo erectus. They just got small,” McNulty says. “We figured this is something we can test.”

Working with a reproduction of the Flores skull, McNulty and Baab used 3D shape analysis to map the details of the skull’s cranium and facial features. The modeling method can distinguish closely related species and ascertain how a species would evolve to become larger or smaller. They scaled skulls from apes, modern humans, and prehistoric humans down to the size of the Flores skull, and an ancestor from 2 million years ago was a close match. “The [Flores] cranium is most similar to Homo erectus or something just a little more primitive,” McNulty says. “It was a really good fit.” According to his findings, the Flores “hobbit” represents a new species, altering our understanding of human evolution.

“The fact that [Homo floresiensis] is only 12,000 years old when things that looked like that were supposed to have died off millions of years ago—that’s why we’re having this debate,” McNulty explains.
—Greg Breining

Less but More Daily
In January, the Minnesota Daily discontinued printing its Friday edition, a move that is expected to save about $10,000 per month in printing costs. For decades, the independent student newspaper has published five days a week, but plummeting ad revenue demanded action, according to co-publisher and editor-in-chief Vadim Lavrusik. But Lavrusik says that one fewer print edition per week means more news for the campus community, not less. That’s because the Daily will shift its Friday edition to the Web and will also beef up its online weekend coverage, thus becoming a seven-days-a-week news source. “The Daily is looking to become more daily, despite the perilous economic times,” Lavrusik wrote in a column announcing the change. College newspapers have been battered by the same economic woes as the larger newspaper industry; the Minnesota Daily is the third student newspaper in the country to eliminate a portion of its print circulation and shift to online publication within the past year. See the Daily at www.mndaily.com.

A New Chapter for Out-of-Print Books
The University of Minnesota Press, an independent auxiliary of the University, is returning to print nearly every book it has published since its founding in 1925. The endeavor is made possible through an ambitious partnership with Google Books, BookSurge (an Amazon.com company), and the Minneapolis-based digital book printing and publishing company BookMobile. The partnership, dubbed Minnesota Archive Editions, uses digital printing technology to make out-of-print books available again to scholars, students, researchers, general readers, libraries, and bookstores. “The seed of the idea came when we heard from Google that they were getting a high number of hits on our out-of-print books,” says press director Douglas Armato. Books are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions in limited quantities according to customer demand. A list of Minnesota Archives Editions titles us available at www.upress.umn.edu/.

Extending a Hand
The University of Minnesota Extension Service is an old hand when it comes to helping families navigate economic crises. In its 100-year history, Extension programs and staff, in collaboration with community partners, have seen families through a Great Depression, recessions, and farm crises. About 18 months ago, Extension staff saw an increase in the number of page views began to increase for the Family Management Program’s Web publication “Adjusting to Suddenly Reduced Income.” Extension has responded by ramping up its Web offerings to people searching for a financial lifeline. Its new online resource, Families in Tough Times, offers strategies to help cope with job loss, foreclosure, and other economic stress. Trish Olson, Family Management Program leader, says that one advantage to the Web is that it offers struggling families some privacy. “People sometimes have lots of shame about their financial circumstances. It’s not always palatable for them to go to a class called ‘Lost Your Job?’?” Visit www.extension.umn.edu. Many Extension resources are also available in print; call 612-626-3971.

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