Hobbit-size skull discovered on remote Indonesian island

(photo of skull)
“Probably this is one of the most important discoveries in hominid paleontological history,” says University of Pittsburgh paleontologist Jeffrey Schwartz. “This is just about the wildest thing anyone could have discovered.”

The team led by Peter Brown of Australia’s University of New England describes the being as a human relative, or hominid, that stood less than 40 inches tall. Except for a snout, she had a human face and a brain one-third the size of ours. She was older than 30, judging from her worn teeth and bone structure.”

How do they know it wasn’t a tall person with a very small head?