From Hornets to hobbits

 

Kerrie Grant points to where the team excavated the skeleton from the trench underground.

A comparison of the skull found, left, with one of today’s humans.

EX-AIRCRAFT technician Kerrie Grant has helped find a new human-like species.

Ms Grant is a member of the Australian-Indonesian team that recently discovered a new hominid, nicknamed the Hobbit, on the island of Flores, Indonesia.

She was a senior member of the team, and said the leadership skills she learnt in the Air Force had let her take on positions of authority in her new career as an archaeologist.

“I am the field director on digs in places like Cyprus and Syria,” she said. “Working in teams and arduous environments in the military has also given me a huge head start on other students [and] archaeologists.

“My technical background has seen me rewiring a fridge in Syria, fixing and using a chainsaw to remove a fallen tree off an electrical fence used to keep very large angry chimps inside in Nigeria, and fixing motor vehicles all over the place.

“I can’t count the times people have told me they are so glad I am with them when we are in the middle of nowhere, which in my case seems to be all the time these days.”

Ms Grant was an aircraft technician in the Air Force from 1978-1998. She spent the last eight years of her 20-year Air Force career with Hornets at No. 3 Squadron (which initially looked after Mirages at Butterworth), then No. 481 Maintenance Squadron, and then with No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit.

She gained her archaeological degree while still working full-time in the Air Force.

“Some of the guys in 3SQN and 2OCU when I was there were even able to help me out when I was doing stuff like geology and statistics. The support from my workmates and commanding officers was unbelievable. I thank them so much.”

After completing her degree and discharging at the rank of sergeant, Ms Grant spent a couple of years working as an archaeologist in countries such as Turkey and Morocco. She returned to Australia to complete her honours in ape communication before going to work with chimpanzees in Nigeria for two years.

She came back to Australia once more after being offered a full PhD scholarship to join the Australian-Indonesian project. She is a scholar with the Department of Archeaology, School of Human and Environment Studies, at the University of New England, NSW.

The Discovery

• The skeletal remains show the hominids were only 1m tall, had a brain one-third the size of that of modern humans, and lived on an isolated island long after Homo sapiens migrated through the South Pacific region.
  
• The team unearthed a near-complete skeleton, thought to be a female, including the skull, jaw and most teeth.
  
• It is believed the species could have lived there 18,000 years ago or as long ago as 800,000 years. This means the species could be the descendants of Homo erectus.
  
• The remains were found in a rock shelter called Liang Bua on the island of Flores, Indonesia.
  Information from www.nature.com (news@nature.com)

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