Posted on 03/04/2008 5:14:10 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Hobbit hominids were 'dwarf cretins'
By Richard Ingham in Paris
March 05, 2008 11:46am Article from: Agence France-Presse
AUSTRALIAN scientists are causing controversy in the usually placid world of anthropology, becoming embroiled in a feud about diminutive "hobbit" people whose fossilised remains were found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island four years ago.
Combatting a bid to have the hobbits enshrined as a separate branch of the human family tree, they argue the tiny cave-dwellers were simply Homo sapiens who became stunted and retarded as a result of iodine deficiency in pregnancy.
Dubbed after the wee folk in J.R.R. Tolkien's tale, the hominids - just a metre tall and with a chimp-sized brain - lived around 18,000 years ago on the island of Flores.
The Australian-Indonesian team which announced the discovery in 2004 honoured the cave-dwellers with the name of "Homo floresiensis," or "Man of Flores," to bolster their claim that the hobbits were a new species of human.
The team, led by scientists from the University of New England in NSW, theorised that the little people may have been descendants of prehistoric hominids, Homo erectus, who reached Flores nearly a million years ago.
Marooned from the rest of the world, the hominids evolved a small stature to cope with the available supplies of food. Stone tools and animal remains showed they were skilled in hunting, toolmaking and butchering.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
“simply Homo sapiens who became stunted and retarded”
Well that is hate speech obviously and must be banned!/sarc
Is this connected to the Dennis Kucinich story above?
Homo Moonbatus
“Homo Moonbatus”
I like that!
Wow! Crete is so far away from Indonesia! These people must have been geniuses to have figured out how to travel such distances!
LOL!
So there were Democrats in pre-history after all.
I can’t think of anything to post which is within the boundaries of good taste.
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Thanks again Renfield. Another similar topic. |
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You're going to let that stop you?
....scientists are causing controversy in the usually placid world of anthropology.....
Har...
Anthropology is now and always hs been a seething cauldron of academic jealousy and ambition. The only way to suceed is to destroy some others scholarship.
Nonsense — they were the higly advanced alien crew of a flying saucer that was marooned when their craft was stolen by rival spacemen.
Gee; who'd'a thunk it... eighteen thousand year old Democrats? Oops! I forgot Helen Thomas!
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