SEMINAR: The Shootout at the OK Corral

The Seminar: In supporting the hypothesis that the skeleton found at Liang Bua on the Island of Flores is an adult of a new species, the main proponent asserts that one alternative hypothesis, that it may represent the skeleton of an adult endemic cretin, is wrong. His reasoning is that the Liang Bua remains do not exhibit the various features of endemic cretinism. Is he correct? A story of ‘smoking guns’!

The Speaker: No CV can be short when the speaker has been in research for 60 years! He has published 10 papers in Nature and Science – but over 60 years that is not a great record! Further, his CV includes a number of controversies: on Australopithecines, Sexual Dimorphisms, Out-of-Africa, Brain Evolution, Bone Biomechanics, Osteoporosis, Vitamin B12 Deficiency. Is this presentation another? Is he wrong again? Not an admission that he was wrong before!