'Hobbit' remains kept out of reach

Australian scientists who believe they have found a new species of mini human fear a maverick Indonesian scientist who has locked away the priceless remains may never give them back.

The world of archaeology was stunned last October with the announcement of the discovery of a well-preserved skeleton of a fully grown female, barely a metre tall, in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. The discovery of the so-called "hobbit", after J.R.R. Tolkien's mythical characters, has turned common theories about human evolution on their head.

However, the triumphant aftermath of the discovery is now being marred by a stoush involving a prominent Indonesian scientist who has unofficially borrowed the remains to conduct his own research.

Paleoanthropologist Professor Teuku Jacob challenges the claims of Australian and Indonesian scientists who say the "hobbit" is a new species of human. However, more than that, the team that found the remains is wondering when he will ever give them back to the Indonesian Centre for Archaeology (ICA) in Jakarta, their rightful home.

Archaeologist Michael Morwood, of Australia's New England University at Armidale, who in collaboration with the ICA made the dramatic discovery on Flores, said the wrangling over the remains was a huge disappointment for science, but he was moving on.

"Will the material ever go back to the ICA? I don't think so," Professor Morwood said. "We're looking at the future. There are exciting prospects in other islands so I'm not going to sit around and get depressed."

Jacob said he intended to return the material, but missed a January 1 deadline that has since been extended to April, and will not say when they will be handed back to the ICA.

The little pot-bellied humanoid is officially called Homo floresiensis, after the island where the remains were found. It was on Flores, in a limestone cave dating back 840,000 years, that the grapefruit-sized skull and bones of a 30-year-old woman who died 18,000 years ago were discovered, along with the remains of six other so-called hobbits, the scientists say.

Characterised by their short stature, long arms, unusual fingers, lack of forehead and chin, and brains the size of chimpanzees, the small humans are believed to have descended from Homo erectus, from which modern humans also evolved.

Morwood's team concluded they walked the Earth as recently as 12,000 years ago - yesterday in palaeontology terms.

They made sophisticated stone tools, hunted Flores' now-extinct stunted elephants (Stegadon) and roasted them over fire.

"We are basically reassessing our models of evolution," Morwood said. "We have no idea about the nature of the relationship between this species and humans, no evidence whatsoever. That's what were looking for."

Indonesian and Australian scientists will return to Flores mid-year to continue work at the existing site, and excavate other caves unaffected by the volcanic eruptions believed to have wiped out the new species.

But not everyone is convinced the hobbit remains are evidence of a new type of prehistoric human.

The ICA's Thomas Sutikna, who led the Flores excavation, said it was crucial to future research to get the remains back to the ICA, which has official authority to hold them.

- AAP