Berger’s skeletons, aged 900 to 2,900 years old, are Homo sapiens, yet they’re much smaller than typical humans; some are only three feet tall. Their discovery feeds a stormy debate: How different can two related organisms be and still be considered H. sapiens? The issue flared recently when miniature human bones were found in Indonesia and named Homo floresiensis, a.k.a. “hobbit.” Berger’s discovery may weaken claims that the hobbits are a separate species. Because of physical characteristics and the lack of ancestral hobbit fossils, Berger believes that both his skeletons and the hobbits are simply small H. sapiens—and that the variety of human size is greater than originally thought.
