Hobbit isn't good at running?

The leg of the ancient 'hobbit' contains clues to show that the small fossil creature discovered on the island of Flores, Indonesia has a very different way of travel than the modern one, according to a new analysis.

Co-author William Harcourt-Smith, an anthropologist at the Museum of American Natural History in New York, said: 'In some ways, we call their feet' original '.

This finding, he added, is also evidence that some fossils of 18 000 years old are of a particular species: Homo floresiensis.

This explanation raises a lot of debate. Some scientists believe that fossil bones are found to be of short-lived modern humans, who may have some genetic disease.

No arc

Foot fossils analyzed in the new study include signs of upright standing, such as rigidity or lack of big toe to cling.

But the foot is completely flat, not the arc. Arcs are an important characteristic of modern human feet that create an elastic mechanism, which is especially important when running.

'This creature will have trouble running long distances compared to modern people'.

Some other original features, published in Nature this week, include big toes like chimpanzees and particularly long feet, quite similar to modern humans.

Harcourt-Smith said: 'Hobbits' have to lift their feet off the ground higher when walking, so there may be a strange gait.'

Although the team still hasn't figured out the mechanism of the hobbit movement, this animal is more likely to buck its knees and hips than modern people when walking.

To Flores

New evidence from the wrist, skull, brain, shoulders, and legs of the hobbit is changing the minds of scientists about the time when this little humanity arrived in Flores.

Previous researchers have suggested that fossil samples were descendants of Homo erectus to Asia after leaving Africa 2 million years ago.

(Photo: National Geographic)

However, the new analysis shows that the ancestors of the hobbits were even more 'ancient' .

Harcourt-Smith explained: 'We believe that all of this evidence suggests that an earlier erectus branch had left Africa, arrived in Indonesia and Flores'.

Upon reaching Flores, the panorama became vague, uncertain whether the evolved hobbit became smaller or remained the same.

Incredulous?

In a review accompanying a Nature paper, Harvard University anthropologist Daniel Lieberman wrote that he and other scientists are waiting for further evidence of the nature and shape of H floresiensis.

He said: 'There is growing evidence that the hobbits evolved from ancient humans over H. erectus'.

The speciality of the hobbit is also reinforced by another study, which also appeared in Nature this week, after analyzing the tiny special brain of this organism.

The brain of the hobbit lacks the balance of the rest of the body, some experts argue, and it's a sign that this creature is a modern person with a genetic condition called microcephaly.

However, a group of London's Natural History Museum studied modern dwarf hippos on the island of Madagascar. They found that the brains of this animal became smaller over time, supporting the theory that the brain size of the hobbit is the result of living on the island.

Robert Eckhardt, an evolutionary biologist at Pennsylvania State University, is still skeptical about the idea that hobbits are a separate species.

Every new article published by supporters of 'new animals' contradicts the previously published article, he commented in an e-mail.