This hypothesis has been proposed before by the same team and then rejected. However I feel obliged to mention it as I'm sure that some readers will find it interesting and also because, if real, it would mean that LB1 is not an Homo erectus (maybe a cretin H. erectus?) nor a new species but a marginal representative of our own expansion in Eurasia and beyond.
However I am skeptic, specially because Oxnard fails to compare with Homo erectus.
Cretinism is a severe chronic medical condition caused by low iodine intake. Iodine is mostly ingested with drinking water and also from sea salt, but not refined table salt (unless enriched).
Judge yourself anyhow:
Charles Oxnard et al. Post-Cranial Skeletons of Hypothyroid Cretins Show a Similar Anatomical Mosaic as Homo floresiensis. PLoS ONE 2010. Open access.
"However I am skeptic, specially because Oxnard fails to compare with Homo erectus".
ReplyDeleteI'm a skeptic too, because I'm fairly sure the original researchers found more than just one example. The agument seems to be between two groups of Australian researchers so some obscure motive may be at work. But I'm sure you'd agree that questioning of differing interpretaions of the same evidence is a good thing.