Posted on 03/18/2010 6:05:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Ancestors of a hobbit-like species of humans may have colonized the Indonesian island of Flores as far back as a million years ago, much earlier than thought, according to a new study published Thursday. These early ancestors, or hominins, were previously thought to have arrived on the island about 800,000 years ago but artifacts found in a new archaeological site suggest they might have been around even earlier... The arrival of hominins is also believed to have resulted quickly in the mass death of giant tortoises and the Stegondon sondaari, a pygmy elephant, on the island. In their paper, the researchers said they found 45 stone tools in Wolo Sege in the Soa basin in Flores. Led by Adam Brumm at the Center of Archaeological Science in the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, the researchers used new dating methods and found that the stone tools were about a million years old. "It is now clear, however, in light of the evidence from Wolo Sege, that hominins were present on Flores (a million years ago). This suggests that the non-selective, mass death of Stegondon sondaari and giant tortoise ... could represent a localized or regional extinction," they wrote in their paper. "Flores man" is thought to be a descendant of homo erectus, who had a large brain, was full-sized and spread out from Africa to Asia about two million years ago. Scientists suspect "Flores man" lived at the same time as modern humans and became extinct after a massive volcanic eruption on the island around 12,000 years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
became extinct after a massive volcanic eruption on the island around 12,000 years ago.
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They only say this because some carvings listed Merry, Pippen and Sam.
Robert Reich’s ancestors?
Didn’t Randy Newman sing about these Hobbit Ancestors?
“Flores man” is thought to be a descendant of homo erectus...”
Sounds like the descendant of a florist in San Francisco...
Well, for this particular Hobbit, Newman may have penned multiple songs - not only the most obvious, but the Soundtracks to Monsters Inc, and the Princess & the Frog may be been biographically inspired by the aforementioned Homo floresiensis
Da plane, da plane!
.
You are a good sport, sir.
Bend the forks and crack the plates....
....that what Bilbo Baggins hates!!!
I wonder if they’ll use that in the movie? There’s so much charm in the book. Trying to jam the encounter with Gandalf, then the dwarves, then the trolls (the ones turned to stone) then Rivendell, then the climb over the Misty Mountains, capture by Goblins, encounter with Gollum, then the eagles, then Beorn, then Mirkwood, the spiders, the barrels, the Laketown, the various adventures on the Mountain including all the encounters with Smaug, the fetching of Dain, the battle, reunion with Gandalf, and (improbably) the long uneventful trip home, and the interrupted auction... yeah, they’re gonna cut out 75 percent of this stuff. :’(
;’)
Proto-hobbitses.
Chill, dude, they’re making 2 movies out of the book, same as they’re doing with Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter Book 7). Not only will everything good from the book be in there, there’ll be backstory like the White Council etc.
I would have preferred that the LOTR movies had numbered six, one for each “book”, but I suppose the budget wouldn’t allow that *and* a dwarf tossing.
I guess the question becomes, what does it have in its pocketses...
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