Posted on Wednesday 23 March 2005

As Professor Macief Henneberg says in this heated debate with Professor Richard Roberts on the ABC earlier this month:

Let me finally straight out say that we are not discussing fossils at all. Neither the skeleton LB1 or any comparing remaining bones, but we didn't really study them, neither of those are fossilised. They're as fresh bones as those that are excavated - I have excavated several thousands of them - from cemeteries and burial grounds that are a few thousand to several hundred years old. This is not a fossil.

Indeed, these bones are not fossils, that is they haven't become mineralised and turned to stone. Instead they were preserved by the damp oxygen-starved mud of the cave at Liang Bua. Bones in this state are extremely delicate and when they were found, were described as having the consistency of "mashed potatoes" or "mud" and when dried became extremely brittle.

So while Henneberg has elsewhere defended Professor Teuku Jacob professionalism and experience, why is it that that when he had the bones they were handled so poorly?

According to this article in USA Today, the bones have "suffered irreparable damage [...] so extensive that it will limit scholarly research" on the new species. Most of the damage was caused by the application of rubber moulds which made at Jacob's lab, a process which, according to Tim White of the University of California-Berkeley, should never have been attempted on bones of this type. When the discovery team still had the bones in their possession, they chose to make CT scans instead.

Here is an outline of the damage according to the article:

• Much of the detail at the base of the skull was pulled off.
• The left outer eye socket and two teeth were broken off and glued back. Bits of molded rubber still adhere to some sections.
• Long, deep cuts mark the lower edge of the hobbit's jaw on both sides, left by a blade used to cut away molded rubber.
• The chin of a second hobbit jaw was snapped off, losing bone. It was glued back together misaligned and at an incorrect angle.
• The pelvis was smashed, perhaps in transit, destroying details that reveal body shape, gait and evolutionary history.

Tony Djubiantono, the Centre's director is still pretty cross, "We have a big dispute with Professor Jacob [...] We didn't give him permission to do any of these things."