Posted on 03/06/2008 1:37:29 AM PST by restornu
Edited on 03/06/2008 9:31:49 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
[snip]
Bad Thyroid?
Paleo-antropologist T. Jacob presents the skull of Indonesia's hobbit-sized humans (left) and modern human (right). The small hominids were first unearthed in a limestone cave on the remote eastern Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 by Australian and Indonesian scientists. Australian scientists now say the hobbits were H. sapiens who were born without a functioning thyroid;Getty Images
March 5, 2008 -- Anthropologists have fired another salvo in a feud about diminutive "hobbit" people whose fossilized 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 meter (3.25 feet) 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 honored 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.
They theorized 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.
Indeed, the species was so successful, went the argument, that for many years the hobbits lived side-by-side with the bigger-brained H. sapiens -- an idea that implies the two hominids may have been more than kissing cousins.
The theory has ignited one of the fiercest rows in years in the outwardly placid discipline of anthropology, a dispute fuelled by wrangles over access to the site and the remains themselves.
In the latest foray, Australian scientists writing in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, say the hobbits are H. sapiens who were born without a functioning thyroid, a condition that doomed them to "dwarf cretinism."
As a result, the hobbits would have been severely restricted in growth and mental and motor skills, although not as badly as individuals with microcephaly -- an abnormally tiny brain -- or other neurological disabilities.
"Dwarf cretinism is the result of severe iodine deficiency in pregnancy, in combination with a number of other environmental factors," explains co-author Peter Obdendorf of RMIT University.
"Dwarf cretins grow not much more than one meter (3.25 feet) and their bones have distinctive characteristics very similar to those of the Flores hobbits.
"Our research suggests these fossils are not a new species, but rather the remains of human hunter-gatherers that suffered from this condition."
The study focuses on a dimple in the skeleton called the pituitary fossa which houses the pituitary gland.
In the hobbit skeletons, this depression is unusually enlarged and is a hallmark of so-called myxoedematous endemic (ME) cretins, whose brain size is roughly half that of normal, says Obdendorf.
Other telltales of ME cretinism are a double-rooted premolar teeth, primitive wristbones and a poorly-developed chin, which the H. floresiensis camp claim as signs that the hominids are separate species, the study says.
Previous assaults on the hobbit hypothesis have said the hominids were dwarf H. sapiens, but this is the first to suggest that the dwarfism resulted from diet rather than inbreeding.
Iodine would have been critically absent in the group's nutrition, and the main source -- fish and seafood -- would have been at least 24 kilometers (15 miles) away, on the coast, the study points out.
"Almost all the people who have looked at these fossils have been coming from an evolutionary perspective," said fellow author Charles Oxnard, a professor at the University of Western Australia. "Our idea is that this was an environmentally-caused problem."
The researchers say there is anecdotal evidence from local folklore to back their claim.
The Nage people of central Flores tell tales of ancestors called "ebu gogo" who lived in caves, were short, roughly-built, hairy, pot-bellied and stupid, who stole food, could not cook and had an imperfect language.
"These characteristics are all consistent with ME cretinism," says the study
That greenman for Greenspan and aliens for Soros! LOL
Yes that would be entertaining to see the progressives in a Hobbit Movies!:)
| Hobbit remains found in Australia |
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| 10/27/2004 1:51:55 PM EDT · by presidio9 · 157 replies · 4,340+ views Reuters | Wed, Oct 27, 2004 | Patricia Reaney Scientists in Australia have found a new species of hobbit-sized humans who lived about 18,000 years ago on an Indonesian island in a discovery that adds another piece to the complex puzzle of human evolution. The partial skeleton of Homo floresiensis, found in a cave on the island of Flores, is of an adult female that was a metre (3 feet) tall, had a chimpanzee-sized brain and was substantially different from modern humans. It shared the isolated island to the east of Java with miniature elephants and Komodo dragons. The creature walked upright, probably evolved into its dwarf size because... |
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| Great site for info on aliens and stuff! |
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| 11/25/2004 1:28:06 AM EST · by Jwinters · 6 replies · 2,892+ views New York Times | Oct. 28, 2004 | NICHOLAS WADE Hobbit Sized Race of Humans Found. - Once upon a time, but not so long ago, on a tropical island midway between Asia and Australia, there lived a race of little people, whose adults stood just 3 1/2 feet tall. Despite their stature, they were mighty hunters. They made stone tools to spear giant rats, clubbed sleeping dragons and hunted the packs of pygmy elephants that roamed their "lost world." |
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| Australian Scientist Disputes 'Hobbit' Findings (Stop evolution lies - petition) |
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| 03/06/2005 4:19:07 PM EST · by Truth666 · 26 replies · 849+ views sci-tech-today.com | March 6, 2005 An Australian academic who has examined the skeletal remains of a three-foot hominid discovered in an Indonesian cave and nicknamed a "hobbit" disputed Friday a report that they represent a new species of human. Professor Maciej Henneberg, head of anatomy at Adelaide University, said he thought the bones found in 2003 on Indonesia's Flores island were simply those of a normal human stunted by a viral disease, microcephaly -- a conclusion rejected in the earlier report by another team of scientists. That team analyzed the find and said the partial skeleton was evidence of a new, dwarf species of human.... |
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| More bones of hobbit-sized humans discovered |
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| 10/11/2005 11:34:12 AM EDT · by aculeus · 86 replies · 2,214+ views Reuters | October 11, 2005 | By Patricia Reaney LONDON (Reuters) - Australian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered more remains of hobbit-sized humans which belong to a previously unknown species that lived at the end of the last Ice Age. Professor Mike Morwood, of the University of New England, in Armidale, Australia, stunned the science world last year when he and his team announced the discovery of 18,000-year-old remains of a new human species called Homo floresiensis. The partial skeleton discovered in a limestone cave on the remote Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 was of a tiny adult hominid, or early human, only one meter (3... |
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| Ancient Islanders Get A Leg Up ('Hobbits') |
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| 05/16/2006 3:45:36 PM EDT · by blam · 12 replies · 657+ views Science News | 5-16-2006 | Bruce Bower Ancient islanders get a leg up Bruce Bower From San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Paleoanthropology Society and Society for American Archaeology meeting Fossils of a humanlike species dubbed Homo floresiensis that lived on the Pacific island of Flores between 18,000 and 12,000 years ago recently grabbed headlines because scientists deduced that this creature stood no more than 1 meter tall and possessed a surprisingly small brain. Nonetheless, H. floresiensis packed considerable weight on its diminutive frame and possessed far stronger legs than people do today, says William L. Jungers of the State University of New York at Stony Brook.... |
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| "Hobbit" Humans Were Diseased, Not New Species, Study Says |
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| 05/18/2006 6:00:14 PM EDT · by nickcarraway · 5 replies · 780+ views National Geographic News | May 18, 2006 | John Roach The "hobbit" humans that lived on the Indonesian island of Flores some 18,000 years ago were actually a population of modern humans stricken with a genetic disease that causes small brains, a new study says. The argument is being made by a group of scientists who have analyzed all the scientific evidence presented so far about the evolution of the proposed species Homo floresiensis. The discovery of the hobbit-like human -- so-called for their small stature -- was first announced in 2004 after a fossil skull and bones of several individuals turned up on Flores. Preliminary analysis of the remains pegged them as belonging... |
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| Homo Floresiensis: tiny toolmaker or microcephalic? (The debate continues) |
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| 06/01/2006 10:43:39 AM EDT · by S0122017 · 5 replies · 199+ views nature news | 31 may | dude #4352 Old tools shed light on hobbit origins Tiny toolmaker or microcephalic? The 'hobbit' debate continues. Michael Hopkin They may have been tiny, but the hobbits of the Indonesian island of Flores are still the focus of the biggest controversy in anthropology. The latest twist in the tale suggests that these one-metre-tall hominids, with a brain the size of a grapefruit, were the final members of a tool-making tradition stretching back more than 800,000 years. But amid fresh doubts over the species' evolutionary history, the idea that the curious creatures were deformed modern humans refuses to go away. Tools from Liang... |
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| Paper reignites hobbit debate |
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| 08/23/2006 1:17:42 AM EDT · by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 243+ views Australian Broadcasting Corporation | Tuesday, 22 August 2006 | unattributed [T]wo of the original Australian discoverers of the hobbit, Professor Peter Brown and Professor Mike Morwood from the University of New England, have lashed out at the researchers, rejecting arguments put forward in the latest paper. Professor Brown also criticises the journal itself for publishing the research. He says the paper's conclusions are "unsupported by any published evidence" and that the paper makes "misleading comments" about previously published papers. Australian National University taxonomist Professor Colin Groves, who was not involved in the research, also rejects the PNAS paper. "Most of their claims of pathology are not substantial," says Professor Groves,... |
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| Scientists scuttle new evolution claims of 'Hobbit' Fossil (Or, "Why never to jump to conclusions") |
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| 10/18/2006 5:58:43 PM EDT · by DaveLoneRanger · 25 replies · 480+ views African News Dimension | October 18, 2006 | Staff When scientists found 18,000-year-old bones of a small, humanlike creature on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, they concluded that the bones represented a new species in the human family tree that they named Homo floresiensis. Their interpretation was widely accepted by the scientific community and heralded by the popular press around the world. Because of its very short stature, H. floresiensis was soon dubbed the "Hobbit." But now, a new research has comprehensively and convincingly rubbished the case that the small skull represent a new species of hominid, as was claimed in a study published which was published... |
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| 'Hobbits' Were Stunted Cave-Dwellers |
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| 03/06/2008 4:37:29 AM EST · by restornu · 3 replies Discovery.com | March 5, 2008 | Richard Ingham, AFP Bad Thyroid? Paleo-antropologist T. Jacob presents the skull of Indonesia's hobbit-sized humans (left) and modern human (right). The small hominids were first unearthed in a limestone cave on the remote eastern Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 by Australian and Indonesian scientists. Australian scientists now say the hobbits were H. sapiens who were born without a functioning thyroid;Getty Images March 5, 2008 -- Anthropologists have fired another salvo in a feud about diminutive "hobbit" people whose fossilized remains were found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island four years ago. Combatting a bid to have the hobbits enshrined... |
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| Prehistoric dwarf astounds scientists / Island discovery could rewrite human evolution |
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| 10/28/2004 8:25:14 AM EDT · by Former Military Chick · 60 replies · 1,466+ views Deseret News | October 28, 2004 | Joseph B. Verrengia In an astonishing discovery that could rewrite the history of human evolution, scientists say they have found the skeleton of a new human species, a dwarf, marooned for eons in a tropical Lost World while modern man rapidly colonized the rest of the planet. Chris Stringer, director of human origins studies at the Natural History Museum in London, holds a cast taken from a skull that is said to be that of a new species in the evolution of humans named Flores Man. Richard Lewis, Associated Press Chris Stringer, director of human origins studies at the Natural History Museum in... |
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| Anthropologist Claims Humans, Neanderthals, Australopithecines All Variations on One Species |
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| 01/03/2005 12:41:39 AM EST · by bondserv · 83 replies · 11,091+ views Creation-Evolution Headlines | 01/01/2005 | Creation-Evolution Headlines Anthropologist Claims Humans, Neanderthals, Australopithecines All Variations on One Species 01/01/2005 According to a news story in the UK News Telegraph, all fossil hominims, including modern humans, Australopithecines, Neandertals and the recent Indonesian "hobbit man," belong to the same species: Homo sapiens. Reporter Robert Matthews wrote about Maciej Henneberg (U of Adelaide) and his argument, based on skull sizes and body weights for 200 fossil specimens, that all known hominim bones fit within the range of variation expected for a single species. Henneberg made the startling claim in the Journal of Comparative Human Biology, where he said, "All hominims appear... |
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| New species may have relatives in next villlage |
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| 01/12/2005 8:52:22 PM EST · by aculeus · 22 replies · 843+ views The Guardian (UK) | January 13, 2005 | John Vidal A growing number of scientists are challenging the sensational discovery last year of a new species of one-metre-tall intelligent humans whose 13,000-year-old bones were said to have been found in an Indonesian cave. According to some leading anthropologists in Australia, Indonesia and elsewhere, Homo floresiensis is not "one of the most important discoveries of the last 150 years" as was widely reported last October, but a pygmy version of modern Homo sapiens with a not uncommon brain disease. Now a leading critic of the Homo floresiensis theory is to send researchers to a village near the cave where the bones... |
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| Bones of contention(Discovery of a new species of human astounds the world,but is it what it seems?) |
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| 01/13/2005 4:08:28 AM EST · by nickcarraway · 23 replies · 1,723+ views Guardian (U.K.) | Thursday January 13, 2005 | John Vidal The discovery of a new species of human astounded the world. But is it what it seems? John Vidal went to remotest Flores to find out If you want to understand human evolution, it may be worth starting with Johannes Daak from the remote village of Akel in the heavily forested centre of the Indonesian island of Flores. Johannes, from the Manggarai ethnic group, reckons he is 100 years old and says he owes his longevity and enduring strength to having only ever known one woman. He says he owes his stature to his ancestors. Johannes is no more than... |
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| 'Hobbit' Brain Supports Species Theory |
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| 03/03/2005 3:57:01 PM EST · by 1LongTimeLurker · 26 replies · 11,839+ views Yahoo News | 3/3/05 | Joseph Verrengia Scientists working with powerful imaging computers say the spectacular "Hobbit" fossil recently discovered in Indonesia had distinctive brain features that could justify its classification as a separate -- and tiny -- human ancestor. The new report, published Thursday in the online journal Science Express, seems to support the idea of a human dwarf species marooned for eons while modern man spread across the planet. Detractors of the theory, however, said the computer models were unconvincing. The new research produced a computer-generated model that compared surface impressions on the inside of the fossil skull with brain casts of modern and ancient... |
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| Bones of Contention: A bad bill would throttle American archaeology. |
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| 04/14/2005 4:24:33 PM EDT · by The Great Yazoo · 11 replies · 578+ views NRO.com | April 14, 2005 | John J. Miller If a lucky paleoanthropologist ever unearths hobbit bones on federal land, scientists won't get to study them -- at least not if Sen. John McCain and his allies have their way. I'm not joking about hobbits. Really. You may recall the astonishing reports last year about the discovery of Homo floresiensis, a previously unknown species of human that lived as recently as 13,000 years ago -- more recently than the Neanderthals. And unlike the Neanderthals, who are usually described as nasty and brutish, the Flores people were short. A fully grown adult would have been about the same size as... |
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| Bones Of Contention ('Hobbits' - More) |
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| 05/30/2005 7:35:41 PM EDT · by blam · 10 replies · 621+ views Time - Asia | 5-30-2005 | John Stanmeyer Bones of ContentionIs a small, 18,000-year-old skeleton the older cousin of modern-day Pygmies -- or a new human species? BY SIMON ELEGANT | RAMPASASA JOHN STANMEYER FOR TIMESMALL WORLD: Rampasasa resident Anggalus Jalur, 55, stands just 130 cm tall "In those days we ate our meat raw, like animals." The speaker is Viktor Jurubu, an Indonesian farmer in his 60s, who, in his T shirt and sarong, looks little like the cavemen he's describing. Except for his height, which is about 140 cm. In the world of anthropology, Jurubu's small size is big news because he and his 246 fellow villagers of... |
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| Small Brain Did Not Stop Hobbit Having Big Ideas |
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| 09/16/2005 10:05:03 PM EDT · by blam · 18 replies · 724+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 9-8-2005 | Nic Fleming/Roger highfield Small brain did not stop Hobbit having big ideas By Nic Fleming and Roger Highfield in Dublin (Filed: 08/09/2005) A fossil of a diminutive human nicknamed "the Hobbit" does indeed represent a previously unrecognised species of early Man, according to a new technique that suggests it was a cultured little fellow. Sceptics had argued that the Hobbit, discovered in Indonesia and first announced last year, could have been an individual who suffered from microcephalya, a disorder that limits brain growth. The fossils' discoverers had suggested that the Hobbit was either a pygmy form of a known species or a previously... |
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| Anthropologists Uncover Ancient Jawbone |
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| 10/11/2005 12:47:00 PM EDT · by NormsRevenge · 19 replies · 785+ views ap on Yahoo | 10/11/05 | Joseph B. Verrengia - AP Scientists digging in a remote Indonesian cave have uncovered a jaw bone that they say adds more evidence that a tiny prehistoric Hobbit-like species once existed. The jaw is from the ninth individual believed to have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago. The bones are in a wet cave on the island of Flores in the eastern limb of the Indonesian archipelago, near Australia. The research team which reported the original sensational finding nearly a year ago strongly believes that the skeletons belong to a separate species of early human that shared Earth with modern humans far more recently... |
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| New finds of human ancestor jumble evolutionary puzzle |
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| 10/13/2005 11:12:50 AM EDT · by Crackingham · 167 replies · 2,642+ views Christian Science Monitor | 10/13/5 | Peter N. Spotts In their study of the evolutionary ladder, scientists have found that modern humans rubbed elbows with some colorful cousins. But few have been as puzzling as a purported cousin unearthed on the Indonesian island of Flores. The partial skeleton, first reported last October, was stunning. Estimated to stand just over three feet tall, it offered the tantalizing possibility that a new species of mini-human lived 18,000 years ago. But some researchers dismissed the find as a pygmy or the result of a physical defect. Now the research team that gave the world the hobbit-like Homo floresiensis has found what it... |
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| Hobbits May Be Earliest Australians |
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| 12/07/2005 6:01:40 PM EST · by blam · 22 replies · 647+ views The Australian | 12-8-2005 | Carmelo Amalfi/Leigh Dayton Hobbits may be earliest Australians Carmelo Amalfi and Leigh Dayton December 08, 2005 THE tiny hobbit-like humans of Indonesia may have lived in Australia before they became extinct about 11,000 years ago. The startling claim comes from archaeologist Mike Morwood, leader of the team that in 2003 uncovered remains of the 1m-tall hominid at Liang Bua cave on Indonesia's Flores island. They believe the pint-size person - known officially as Homo floresiensis and unofficially as the "Hobbit" - was wiped out by a volcanic eruption that spared their Homo sapiens neighbours. Speaking at a public lecture in Perth, Professor Morwood... |
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| Debate on Little Human Fossil Enters Major Scientific Forum |
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| 05/19/2006 6:09:39 AM EDT · by Pharmboy · 25 replies · 760+ views NY Times | May 19, 2006 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Ira Block/National GeographicSome scientists say this skull, smaller than those of modern humans, is from a newfound species. Not all scientists agree that the 18,000-year-old "little people" fossils found on the Indonesian island of Flores should be designated an extinct human-related species. Some expressed their opposition in news interviews and informal symposiums, but papers arguing their case were rejected by major journals. snip... In today's issue of the journal Science, researchers led by Robert D. Martin of the Field Museum in Chicago present evidence they say supports their main argument, that the skull in question is not that of... |
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| Indonesia's Hobbits lose their magic |
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| 05/19/2006 1:18:17 PM EDT · by Mikey_1962 · 4 replies · 466+ views The Age | 5/19/06 | Mikey_1962 NEW report disputes scientists' claims that bones of a dwarf human discovered on an Indonesian island are those of an entirely new human species. The 18,000-year-old bones found on Flores Island in 2003 were given the scientific name Homo floresiensis, and the nickname "Hobbit" after the diminutive figures in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel. Anthropologists from Australia and Indonesia said it was an entirely new human species. The discovery of a new hominid excited scientists around the world. But a group of scientists led by primatologist Robert Martin said in the May 19 issue of Science magazine that the bones... |
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| Hobbits don't exist; ancient skeleton not a pygmy human species |
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| 08/21/2006 5:21:11 PM EDT · by DaveLoneRanger · 22 replies · 830+ views Mongabay.com | August 21, 2006 | Penn State The skeletal remains found in a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia, reported in 2004, do not represent a new species as then claimed, but some of the ancestors of modern human pygmies who live on the island today, according to an international scientific team. The researchers also demonstrate that the fairly complete skeleton designated LB1 is microcephalic, while other remains excavated from the site share LB1's small stature but show no evidence of microcephaly, since no other brain cases are known. Microcephaly is a condition in which the head and brain are much smaller than average for the... |
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| Taking Sides In Battle Of The 'Hobbit' |
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| 10/09/2006 8:07:07 PM EDT · by blam · 10 replies · 489+ views New Scientist | 10-9-2006 | Jeff Hecht Taking sides in the battle of the 'hobbit' 05:00 09 October 2006 Jeff Hecht The battle among paleaoanthropologists over Homo Floresiensis, popularly known as "the hobbit", threatens to become an epic of Lord of the Rings proportions. The debate rages on over whether the fossil, found on the Indonesian island of Flores, is a separate species or simply a modern human with stunted development. Now Robert Martin at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, US, claims the controversial fossil, discovered in 2004 was really a Stone Age Homo sapiens (modern human) with a mild form of the condition... |
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| Hobbit Cave Digs Set To Restart |
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| 01/25/2007 1:46:09 PM EST · by blam · 10 replies · 466+ views BBC | 1-25-2007 Hobbit cave digs set to restart Researchers had not been able to excavate at the cave Archaeologists who found the remains of human "Hobbits" have permission to restart excavations at the cave where the specimens were found. Indonesian officials have blocked access to the cave since 2005, following a dispute over the bones. But Professor Richard "Bert" Roberts, a member of the team that found the specimens, told BBC News the political hurdles had now been overcome. The researchers claim that the remains belong to a novel species of human. But some researchers reject this assertion, claiming instead that the... |
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| Australian Scientists Hope Cave Chamber Will Settle 'Hobbit' Debate |
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| 01/29/2007 7:01:41 PM EST · by Sopater · 9 replies · 444+ views Fox News | Monday, January 29, 2007 | Leigh Dayton The chance discovery of an enormous chamber beneath the Indonesian cave where hobbit-like creatures were discovered promises to settle the debate about who -- or what -- the tiny creatures were. Scientists are confident the mystery will be solved if they can extract DNA from "hobbit" remains they expect to find among the rubble of 32,000- to 80,000-year-old bones and stone tools littering the cavern floor. "Well, well, well, well, well; this will settle the matter," said Colin Groves, a physical anthropologist at the Australian National University in Canberra. He said obtaining a "CSI"-style DNA profile of the three-foot-tall creatures... |
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| Anthropologist Confirms 'Hobbit' Indeed A Seperate (Human) Species |
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| 01/29/2007 7:13:17 PM EST · by blam · 56 replies · 1,493+ views Science Daily | 1-29-2007 | Florida State University Florida State University Date: January 29, 2007 Anthropologist Confirms 'Hobbit' Indeed A Separate Species Science Daily -- After the skeletal remains of an 18,000-year-old, Hobbit-sized human were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, some scientists thought that the specimen must have been a pygmy or a microcephalic -- a human with an abnormally small skull. Not so, said Dean Falk, a world-renowned paleoneurologist and chair of Florida State University's anthropology department, who along with an international team of experts created detailed maps of imprints left on the ancient hominid's braincase and concluded that the so-called Hobbit was... |
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| Hobbit Skeptics Split On What A Second Skull Would Mean |
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| 02/07/2007 6:47:50 PM EST · by blam · 9 replies · 448+ views Scientific American | 2-6-2007 | JR Minkel February 06, 2007 Hobbit Skeptics Split on What a Second Skull Would Mean Advocates of a human Hobbit reveal what--if anything--would make them soften their stance By JR Minkel Image: COURTESY OF KIRK E. SMITH/Electronic Radiology Laboratory, Mallinckrodt Institute of RadiologyDOUBLE TROUBLE? A second small Hobbit skull similar to the first [right] would convince some skeptics -- but not all of them -- that they are dealing with a new species, as opposed to a dwarf or a diseased human [left]. For three years researchers have feuded over the rightful classification of the Hobbit, a diminutive, 18,000-year-old specimen unearthed from the Indonesian island of... |
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| Surviving The Hobbit Wars |
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| 03/05/2007 6:18:25 PM EST · by blam · 21 replies · 621+ views Canberra Times | 3-5-2007 | Simon Grose Monday, 5 March 2007 Author Mike Morwood. THE DIG: The bones in Liang Bua cave, Flores, where the hobbits were found. Surviving the Hobbit Wars Simon Grose Dr Mike Gagan will be getting into more than one of the world's most exciting archaeological digs when he abseils down to an ancient graveyard on the Indonesian island of Flores in June. The Australian National University palaeoclimatologist will also be entering a drama that has a reputation for fierce personal and ideological rivalries, international intrigue, stolen goods of priceless value, broken and mended agreements, intense media interest, and a central theme which... |
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| Hobbit Hominids Lived The Island Life |
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| 04/18/2007 2:19:12 PM EDT · by blam · 20 replies · 652+ views Yahoo News | 4-18-2007 Hobbit hominids lived the island life Wed Apr 18, 6:43 AM ET PARIS (AFP) - A tantalising piece of evidence has been added to the puzzle over so-called "hobbit" hominids found in a cave in a remote Indonesian island, whose discovery has ignited one of the fiercest rows in anthropology. Explorers of the human odyssey have been squabbling bitterly since the fossilised skeletons of tiny hominids, dubbed after the diminutive hobbits in J.R.R. Tolkien's tale, were found on the island of Flores in 2003. Measuring just a metre (3.25 feet) tall and with a skull the size of a grapefruit,... |
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| Discovery Of The Hobbit |
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| 05/23/2007 5:26:08 PM EDT · by blam · 7 replies · 770+ views Stuff.comNZ | 5-23-2007 | Nicola Jennings Long after homo sapiens invented art, porn and sailing, another kind of human scampered about in Indonesian forests. We know this because a team led by one of the writers of this fascinating book, Australian archaeologist Mike Morwood, discovered the creature's skeleton in 2003, in a cave on the remote island of Flores. Since then, bones belonging to at least eight more individuals have been found, ranging in age from 95,000 to 12,000 years old. Our own... |
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| 'Hobbits' Not A Different Species, Say Scientists |
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| 01/13/2008 5:25:04 PM EST · by blam · 28 replies The Telegraph (UK) | 1-3-2008 | Roger Highfield 'Hobbits' not a different species, say scientists By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 7:01pm GMT 03/01/2008 The long-running debate about the existence of so-called hobbits of Indonesia has taken a new turn with a study that suggests these ancient people were not an unusual species of human but modern humans with a growth disorder. Scientists believe the "hobbit" had the same growth condition as Paddy Ryan The work, if confirmed, suggests that there could be up to around 100 documented such "hobbits" in the world today, the people who have the mutation that leads to them being normally proportioned... |
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| Do little people go to heaven?: If the 3' tall hominids were rational, did they have immortal souls? |
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| 11/08/2004 12:37:12 AM EST · by Destro · 33 replies · 727+ views spectator.co.uk | 6 November 2004 | Christopher Howse Issue: 6 November 2004 Do little people go to heaven?If the three-foot-tall hominids of Flores were rational, did they have immortal souls? asks Christopher Howse When they showed on television the cave on the island of Flores where the remains of little people had been found, I felt, I admit, a Yeatsian frisson that the world of politics cannot give. It was not delight at a new branch on the hat-stand of anthropoid evolution, but the thought that in the thick Indonesian rainforest there were (or had been, perhaps as recently as the time when dodos lived) creatures with whom... |
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Gods |
Thanks Renfield for sending a link, luckily I checked before I posted, eh? :') This topic is an update. I've posted results from the "hobbit" keyword right up there ^. |
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“Dwarf cretins grow not much more than one meter (3.25 feet)”
OBVIOUS misstatement of fact - look at Congress.
Stuned Man
Renfield’s links:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/05/scihobbit105.xml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/05/archaeology?gusrc=rss&\1feed=science
Brain, Vol. 114, No. 2, 825-841, 1991
© 1991 Oxford University Press
THE NEUROLOGY OF ENDEMIC CRETINISM
A STUDY OF TWO ENDEMIAS
JEAN-PIERRE HALPERN1,, STEVEN C. BOYAGES2, GLENDEN F. MABERLY2, JOHN K. COLLINS3, CRESWELL J. EASTMAN2 and JOHN G.L. MORRIS1
Department of Medicine and Neurology, University of Sydney, Westmeadf Hospital Sydney, NSW, Australia 2Departments of Endocrinology Unit, University of Sydney, Westmead Hospital Sydney, NSW, Australia 3Departments of School of Behavioural Sciences, Macqurie University Sydney, NSW
Endemic cretinism is the most severe manifestation of dietary iodine deficiency. Two forms of the syndrome are traditionally described: neurological and myxoedematous. Although this classification highlights the important neurological sequelae of the disorder it implies that myxoedematous cretins have an alternative mechanism. Further, the nature of the neurological deficit associated with both types of endemic cretinism has received scant attention in recent times considering that it remains a common disorder in many parts of the world.
The nature and extent of the neurological deficit found in endemic cretinism was investigated in 104 cretins from a predominantly myxoedematous endemia in western China and in 35 cretins from central Java, Indonesia, a predominantly neurological endemia. We found a similar pattern of neurological involvement in nearly all cretins from both endemias, regardless of typ(myxoedematous or neurological), and of current thyroid function. Hallmarks of the neurological features included mental retardation, pyramidal signs in a proximal distribution and extrapyramidal signs. Many patients exhibited a characteristic gait. This probably reflected pyramidal and extrapyramidal dysfunction, although joint laxity and deformity were important contributing factors. Other frequently encountered clinical features were squint, deafness, and primitive reflexes. Cerebral computerized tomography (CT) revealed basal ganglia calcification in 15 of 50 subjects. The presence of basal ganglia calcification was confined to cretins with severe hypothyroidism. Otherwise, cerebral CT scanning demonstrated only minor abnormalities which did not contribute to the localization of the clinical deficits.
We conclude that the same neurological disorder is present in both types of endemic cretinism reflecting a diffuse insult to the developing fetal nervous system. These clinical findings support the concept of maternal and fetal hypothyroxinaemia, arising from severe iodine deficiency, as the primary pathophysiological event in endemic cretinism. Differences between the two types of cretinism may be explained by continuing postnatal thyroid hormone deficiency in the myxoedematous type, which results in impaired growth, skeletal retardation and sexual immaturity.
Received November 28, 1989. Revised April 17, 1990. Accepted May 22, 1990.
By the way, “cretin” isn’t a quite politically-correct term anymore, is it?
C’mon, you can tell us. These side by side photo comparisons have been sitting on your computer for months now and you finally found an article close enough to serve as an excuse to post your pics, correct?
Just because the Hobbit bones were found in caves 15 miles from the coast doesn’t mean they didn’t travel to the coast, or trade with unpreserved people who lived closer to the coast. There, of course, they would have had access to seafood and seaweed and plenty of iodine.
Heh... funny that their malnutrition didn’t lead to extinction, eh?
'Hobbit' Skull Study Finds Hobbit Is Not Human
ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2009) — In a an analysis of the size, shape and asymmetry of the cranium of Homo floresiensis, Karen Baab, Ph.D., a researcher in the Department of Anatomical Scienes at Stony Brook University, and colleagues conclude that the fossil, found in Indonesia in 2003 and known as the “Hobbit,” is not human. 
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