What captures the imagination is that dwarfing might have occurred in humans, who often buffer themselves from natural selection through cultural means such as tool production and fire-making, both evident at [the fossil site].

There’s more than one individual, so they can refute the hypothesis that this is just some kind of freak. Also, the data suggest that [the remains are from] a fairly long time span, so that...

My take is that this is not a home run yet, because they haven’t really figured out what this is. But there’s good evidence that supports their hypothesis nicely.

Although the original skeleton is estimated to be 18,000 years old, a child’s radius (arm bone) was found in deposits estimated to be 12,000 years old.