Hobbit wrists. An international team of researchers led by Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Paleoanthropologist Matt Tocheri has determined that Homo floresiensis, a 3-foot-tall, 18,000-year-old hominin skeleton discovered four years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores, has a wrist shaped quite differently than the wrists of both modern humans and Neandertals, our closest fossil relatives. This finding demonstrates that Homo floresiensis, commonly called the “hobbit,” represents a different species of human and that modern humans and Neandertals share an earlier human ancestor that the hobbits do not. “Hobbit wrist bones do not look anything like those of modern humans. They’re not even close,” Tocheri says.

Kogod Courtyard. The Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, a striking element of the Smithsonian’s Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, opened to the public in November. Designed by architects Foster + Partners, the enclosed courtyard with its elegant glass canopy provides a distinctive, contemporary accent to the museum’s Greek Revival building. The roof structure is composed of three interconnected vaults that flow into one another through softly curved valleys.

Castelli Gallery. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art recently acquired the records of The Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City. The collection holds extensive files of newspaper clippings and correspondence Castelli had with artists he nurtured and whose work he championed, including Richard Artschwager, Lee Bontecou, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Bruce Nauman, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra and Frank Stella. The records cover the gallery’s history, from its founding in 1957 until Leo Castelli’s death in 1999. The collection includes art registry books; auction and sales history information; exhibition records; photographs of artists and of works of art; ephemera; and correspondence with collectors, curators and dealers.

Martian deposits. Radar soundings by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter have taken the first depth measurements of mysterious deposits found at the Medusae Fossae Formation on Mars. Located on a divide between the Martian highlands and lowlands, the radar revealed these deposits to be at least 1.4 miles thick at some spots. The findings were reported in the journal Science in a paper by Tom Watters, a geologist at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and colleagues. The Medusae Fossae deposits intrigue scientists because they have no echo from certain Earth-based radar wavelengths and may be composed of volcanic ash, wind-blown material or even ice-rich deposits.

Sitting Bull. A lock of hair and wool leggings belonging to Sitting Bull, the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux leader, was repatriated to Ernie LaPointe, Sitting Bull’s great-grandson, in December by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. After Sitting Bull was killed in 1890 while being arrested, his body was in the temporary custody of Horace Deeble, a U.S. Army doctor. Deeble obtained a lock of hair and the leggings from Sitting Bull’s body and later sent the items to the Smithsonian in 1896. Museum staff became aware of the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the materials in 1999.