Posted on Friday 10 December 2004

The Economist has a little more on the snatching of the female Homo floresiensis skeleton as well as the remains of six others by Indonesia'a "King of Paleontology", Professor Teuku Jacob of Gadjah Mada University in Jogjakarta.

Jacob, it seems, is a bit of a collector and Ebu Gogo and her companions should make a worthy edition to his trophy case which already holds the remains of dozens of Homo Erectus skulls and the skull cap of the 1.81-million-year-old "Mojokerto Child".

According to the Economist article, after he took the hobbit skull he came back and removed the rest of the material, "dramatically stuffing the bones into a leather case". As Carl Zimmer points out, this manner of handling the bones is probably not the most ideal way to preserve traces of ancient DNA.