Big row over tiny humans

A row is brewing over the bones of hobbit-sized humans unearthed in Indonesia after a prominent researcher borrowed the remains, upsetting local and Australian scientists who found them, a team member said on Thursday

The remains of Homo floresiensis were found in a cave on the remote island of Flores in 2003 by Australian and Indonesian scientists. Some researchers have complained the project has been hijacked by foreigners and that they have not been given access.

The team that found the bones of several prehistoric hominids says they represent a new species who stood just 3 feet tall, used miniature tools and walked the earth 13,000 years ago.

They published their findings last October, stunning the science world with a discovery what some have said could substantially rewrite the history of human evolution.

Bones moved to Jakarta
However, some scientists in Indonesia have disputed the findings, saying the skeletons were not those of a new species but simply homo sapiens with tiny bodies.

That group, led by 79-year-old Teuku Jacob, Indonesia's palaeoanthropology doyen and lecturer at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, has since borrowed most of the bones found on Flores.

Jacob took possession of a skull last month and on Wednesday moved most of the remaining bones from Indonesia's main archaeology center in Jakarta to his campus, an archeologist said.

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"I am really disappointed. But we want this issue to be handled without a row. So we hope he will return the bones by late December," said Thomas Sutikna, the Indonesian archaeologist who first discovered the prized skull of the female "Flores man".

Jacob could not be reached to comment.

Sutikna said some Indonesians have criticized the participation of foreigners in the project, which is seen as a source of national pride.

"Let's say he has borrowed them so Indonesian scientists get their turn in studying them and he agreed to not put them in harm's way," he said, adding that his office still stores the most brittle of the remains.

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Australian university helped fund project
The archaeology center initially objected to the removal of the bones by the senior professor, but eventually had to succumb to nationalistic pressures, said Sutikna.

"Science must not be complicated by the origin of the scientists. In science, we also should not be directed by seniority," Sutikna said.

Sutikna said his Australian counterparts were displeased when they learned of the development, but the joint team agreed to wait until a December deadline given to Jacob before taking any action.

The remains were found as a result of decades of research by Indonesians who shelved the project in the 1970s due to a lack of funds.

A partnership between Jakarta's archaeology center and Australia's University of New England helped the research to get off the ground again.

They struck gold last year, finding the bones of a creature more resembling the fictional hobbits of the Lord of the Rings trilogy than modern humans.

Small tools and the remains of a pygmy elephant, or Stegodon, hunted by the hominids for food have also been unearthed.

The joint team has said it hopes to find more species of small humans on other islands surrounding Flores, 1,500 km (940 miles) east of Jakarta.