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A Tiny Hominid With No Place on the Family Tree
NY Times ^ | April 27, 2009

Posted on 04/27/2009 9:45:55 PM PDT by rdl6989

STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Six years after their discovery, the extinct little people nicknamed hobbits who once occupied the Indonesian island of Flores remain mystifying anomalies in human evolution, out of place in time and geography, their ancestry unknown. Recent research has only widened their challenge to conventional thinking about the origins, transformations and migrations of the early human family. Indeed, the more scientists study the specimens and their implications, the more they are drawn to heretical speculation.

¶Were these primitive survivors of even earlier hominid migrations out of Africa, before Homo erectus migrated about 1.8 million years ago? Could some of the earliest African toolmakers, around 2.5 million years ago, have made their way across Asia?

¶Did some of these migrants evolve into new species in Asia, which moved back to Africa? Two-way traffic is not unheard of in other mammals.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: dmanisi; godsgravesglyphs; hobbit; homoerectus; origin; origins

1 posted on 04/27/2009 9:45:55 PM PDT by rdl6989
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To: SunkenCiv

Ping.


2 posted on 04/27/2009 9:46:25 PM PDT by rdl6989
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To: rdl6989

How did the Hobbits get from New Zealand to Flores?


3 posted on 04/27/2009 10:17:34 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: rdl6989

Interesting, thanks for the article.


4 posted on 04/27/2009 10:20:00 PM PDT by RepublicanChick
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To: rdl6989

5 posted on 04/27/2009 11:15:25 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Can't get enough of my snarking? http://twitter.com/slingsandarrows)
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To: Verginius Rufus

New Zealand used to be known as Isengard.

That’s where they were taken.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/hobbits


6 posted on 04/27/2009 11:27:27 PM PDT by Only1choice____Freedom (FDR had the New Deal. President 0bama has the Raw Deal.)
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To: rdl6989; SunkenCiv

Menehunes?


7 posted on 04/27/2009 11:30:00 PM PDT by BIGLOOK (Keelhaul Congress! It's the sensible solution to restore Command to the People.)
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To: rdl6989; BIGLOOK; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

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Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Thanks for the pings, rdl6989 and BIGLOOK.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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8 posted on 04/28/2009 10:06:06 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: BIGLOOK

Yep.


9 posted on 04/28/2009 10:37:39 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 99 of our national holiday from reality.)
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To: SunkenCiv
Mike Morewood who did the archaeology work on Flores compares the Hobbits to the guys in the below linked article.

Stranger In A New Land (Archaeology)

Image: JOHN GURCHE PORTRAIT OF A PIONEER With a brain half the size of a modern one and a brow reminiscent of Homo habilis, this hominid is one of the most primitive members of our genus on record. Paleoartist John Gurche reconstructed this 1.75-million-year-old explorer from a nearly complete teenage H. erectus skull and associated mandible found in Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia. The background figures derive from two partial crania recovered at the site.

10 posted on 04/28/2009 10:54:04 AM PDT by blam
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To: SunkenCiv; shibumi

Hmmm.

I feel a certain kinship with the wee, lonely thing.


11 posted on 04/28/2009 11:09:08 AM PDT by Salamander (Like acid and oil on a madman's face, reason tends to fly away.......)
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To: rdl6989

I read the title and thought “AHA, Another obama thread”


12 posted on 04/28/2009 11:11:20 AM PDT by John O (God Save America (Please))
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To: SunkenCiv; null and void
Stranded star travelers, who barely made it to shore alive, when their escape pods from their destructing ship hit the drink.

Without tools, power sources, or anything else beyond the scant clothes on their backs, they struggled to survive in the new and hostile environment of the primitive world on which they found themselves.

Alas, the fledgling 'colony' finally succumbed to the strange environment, without ever making contact with the descendants of their far distant ancestors for whom they were searching, who had crashed in Africa in the far distant past....

News...and ships...travels slowly across the vast reaches of intergalactic space, but travel it does. Even as I type, another research & rescue mission is nearing the unsuspecting Sol System, where the siren song of distress beacons play their dirge to the stars.

13 posted on 04/28/2009 11:16:58 AM PDT by ApplegateRanch ("Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss." Heinlein)
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To: ApplegateRanch

...or... the “hobbits” are indignenous, and our ancestors were the stranded star travelers... ;’)


14 posted on 04/28/2009 11:48:49 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: Salamander; blam

:’) Thanks blam. I know what you mean, Salamander.


15 posted on 04/28/2009 12:04:10 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: John O
I read the title and thought “AHA, Another obama thread”

lol

16 posted on 04/28/2009 12:20:48 PM PDT by rdl6989
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To: SunkenCiv

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.


17 posted on 04/28/2009 12:31:10 PM PDT by Salamander (Like acid and oil on a madman's face, reason tends to fly away.......)
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To: Salamander
:')
18 posted on 04/28/2009 12:40:56 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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