Posted on 08/30/2008 1:46:13 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Scientists from the University of Oregon, North Carolina State University and the Australian National University have refuted the conclusion of Lee R. Berger and colleagues that Hobbit-like little people once lived there...
They argue that Berger, an expert on much earlier humans dating to the Pleistocene, failed to review existing documentation, much of it published by Nelson or Fitzpatrick. Much of their rebuttal comes from remains unearthed by Fitzpatrick and Nelson at Chelechol ra Orrak, only miles from Berger's two sites. Among these whole remains are bone pieces that match -- some are even smaller that fragments found by Berger -- and come from much larger bodies than those claimed by Berger...
Berger, as his primary evidence of the existence of small stature humans, pointed to fragments of femoral heads, the round balls atop the body's longest bone that connects it to the hip. Nelson concurs that these heads were often small compared to today's humans but that they connected femurs of modern-sized individuals...
Berger argued that his fragmentary cranial evidence indicated brow ridges common to very ancient human foreheads (picture those of Neanderthals). Nelson and colleagues argue that all cranial measurements they analyzed point to modern-sized heads...
Berger said teeth and orthodontia fragments suggested megadontism -- abnormally large teeth, a condition common in the pre-modern, small-bodied hominins that he often studies. Nelson says that large teeth were indeed common in early Palauans but simply reflected a hunter-gatherer society. Smaller teeth evolved as cultures turned to agriculture, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
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