[Victorian]

In the spirit of the new "News and Current Events" threads, I am offering up what I consider to be one of the most important and underdiscussed news stories of the Year/Decade!!!!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...resiensis.html

"Scientists have determined that the first skeleton they found belongs to a species of human completely new to science. Named **** floresiensis, after the island on which it was found, the tiny human has also been dubbed by dig workers as the "hobbit," after the tiny creatures from the Lord of the Rings books.""

This is discovery completly changes science text books. They found miniture-full grown adult skeletans. This is a completly new species of **** and lived at the SAME time as modern **** Sapiens.

In another version of this story, (which I will try to find again), they talk about the fact that as recently as 1,300 years ago (!) before the Dutch arrived, the natives told stories about the little cave people.

Does anyone else think that this is HUGE? Or am I just a little bit of a science freak? :LOL

Victorian

 

[greyskye]

i read the article at www.newscientist.org
super thought provoking......out competed by **** sapiens or wiped out because of volcano....it would be interesting to read some historical literature that mentions the flois'

my sister is a ornithologist and keeps me up to date on things in the sciece field.

 

[mamadawg]

oh....they're so cute!

but...I thought the earth was only 6000 years old.

 

[calpurnia]

I hope they lived with the mini woolly mammoths. I bet they looked cute

 

[BeeandOwlsMum]

Awesome!

I personally want them to find Ents.....

 

[Too Busy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdinaL Awesome! I personally want them to find Ents.....

Yes! Yes!

 

[Meiri]

Are they really a different species, or just a population that "miniaturized" in response to their environment?

 

[Victorian]

from what I hear it is not the ents that are hard to find...it is the ent wives!

They are saying that this is a new species. I don't know why they think this. Maybe differnt bone structure. I saw a skull and it was very small, but looked smiliar to the **** sapien skull they had next to it.

V.

p.s. my husband thinks that dwarves lived in scandinavia up until recently too.

 

[DaryLLL]

Back in high school long long ago, I did a paper on "witchcraft" (before it was popular). I saw refs to the origin of fairies in England stemming from the "race" of little people who lived in beehive shaped huts and were skilled with herbs.

And yes, the extreme popularity of "trolls" in Scandinavia gives one pause as well.

So much mythology has a kernel of truth in it.

 

[chiromama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdinaL Awesome! I personally want them to find Ents.....

Liar liar pants on fire!! You want them to find the ELVES!!! :LOL

I'd like to unearth Aragon....

 

[DaryLLL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiromama Liar liar pants on fire!! You want them to find the ELVES!!!

Legolas... and don't forget FIGWIT!!!

 

[Pam_and_Abigail]

Very interesting!

"So much mythology has a kernel of truth in it."

Yes!

 

[daylily]

Wow. That's fascinating. I can't wait to show this to my ds, so thanks for sharing.

 

[Ravin]

I just finished a physical anthropology course this semester. Let me tell you, the professors certainly thought it was exciting, but it didn't completely change the textbooks or anything like that.

As far as they can determine, the female skeleton belongs to a population descended from H. erectus, NOT from H. sapiens. They were small, likely as an adaptation to their isolated island home as see in other insular pygmy species, had about the brains of H. erectus proportionate to their body size, and surprisingly advanced tools. Pretty impressive brow ridges, too! Basically they lived alone on this little island for several hundred thousand years until about 18-19,000 years ago, long after modern humans evolved.

 

[~Megan~]

Its interesting to me. I'm assuming they are similar to the Pygmies which are also quite small people.

 

[Meiri]

Thanks Ravin. That makes sense.

 

[DaryLLL]

Hobbitses.

 

[tinybutterfly]

I'm only 4' 11" maybe I am a distant, distant relative! :LOL TB ( who does not have furry feet, though.)

 

[mermommy]

I think that the discovery is facinating but it saddens me that so many people jumped on the " lets call them hobbits " bandwagon - especially in the scientific community. I think the drive to make this discovery more spectacular to the general public could ultimately be detrimental. I liked the bit about this on The Daily Show http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.../jon_9058.html
( video with ad at the begining)

 

[BeeandOwlsMum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiromama Liar liar pants on fire!! You want them to find the ELVES!!! :LOL