http://www.scienceline.org/2008/12/27/blog-konkel-anthropology-hobbit-floresiensis/ The Shortest Distance Between You and Science Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:44:42 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.scienceline.org/2008/12/27/blog-konkel-anthropology-hobbit-floresiensis/comment-page-1/#comment-2567 Rob Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:02:40 +0000 http://scienceline.org/2008/12/27/blog-konkel-anthropology-hobbit-floresiensis/#comment-2567 My family has abnormally large heads but I think we're still humans! My family has abnormally large heads but I think we’re still humans!

]]> http://www.scienceline.org/2008/12/27/blog-konkel-anthropology-hobbit-floresiensis/comment-page-1/#comment-2566 Elliot Kennel Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:45:29 +0000 http://scienceline.org/2008/12/27/blog-konkel-anthropology-hobbit-floresiensis/#comment-2566 I'm not an anthropologist, but it seems to me that it is very difficult to base on argument on one data point. To what degree is the skull representative of the average population? Well with only one data point there is no way to calculate a meaningful standard deviation. I think the arguments that are based on the rest of the skeleton (from which as many as six samples exist) are much more coherent. Hopefully more skulls will be found that in time will provide more statistical weight to the discussion of brain size and species. I’m not an anthropologist, but it seems to me that it is very difficult to base on argument on one data point. To what degree is the skull representative of the average population? Well with only one data point there is no way to calculate a meaningful standard deviation. I think the arguments that are based on the rest of the skeleton (from which as many as six samples exist) are much more coherent. Hopefully more skulls will be found that in time will provide more statistical weight to the discussion of brain size and species.

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