A SHORTCUT TO SKELETAL REMAINS

Or insert the hobbit-related reference of your choice here.

Scientists have discovered a tiny species of ancient human that lived 18,000 years ago on an isolated island east of the Java Sea -- a prehistoric hunter in a "lost world" of giant lizards and miniature elephants.

These "little people" stood about three feet tall and had heads the size of grapefruit. They co-existed with modern humans for thousands of years yet appear to be more closely akin to a long-extinct human ancestor.

Researchers suspect the earlier ancestor may have migrated to the island and evolved into a smaller dwarf species as it adapted to the island's limited resources. This phenomenon, known as the "island rule" is common in the animal world but had never been seen before in human evolution.

"Not even in primates," said paleoanthropologist Peter Brown, of Australia's University of New England, a member of the multinational team reporting on the find Thursday in the journal Nature. "But even though we have evidence of intelligence [in the new species], they were clearly subject to isolation and dwarfing."

Colleagues marveled at the find as an evolutionary aberration -- an archaic human that survived to a time in the fossil record when Neanderthals -- which had been thought to be the last pre-modern species to share the planet with modern humans -- had probably been extinct for more than 10,000 years.

"This is a great fossil find that speaks mounds about evolutionary experiments and the variation they caused," said paleoanthropologist Ken Mowbray, of the American Museum of Natural History. "We have to step back and reevaluate everything we have. It's really cool."

(By the way, is Ken Mowbray in any way related to the Moonie Times reporter on the byline for the Kerry-UNSC non-story from earlier this week? They're both in DC)

At least we now know where Ross Perot originated.

But seriously, this is a fascinating discovery. But not unprecedented. In Lord of the Flies, none of the island dwellers were of normal human size. Okay, so they were kids, but I'm trying here!