Taking Sides In Battle Of The 'Hobbit'

New Scientist ^ | 10-9-2006 | Jeff Hecht

[blam]

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 microcephaly. There are more than 400 genetic variants of this disease, which stunts brain development.

The existence of a species of small-brained dwarf humans just 18,000 years ago on Flores is a mere fantasy, Martin says. He argues that stone tools found at the site were made by normal Homo sapiens, not a separate species of hominids with 400-cubic-centimetre brains.

Evolving dwarfism

Yet just weeks earlier, Colin Groves at the Australian National University in Canberra, published a study in the Journal of Human Evolution (vol 51, p 360), which stated that the Flores skull does not have the shape of a microcephaliac.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Greatest little hobbit there ever was.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQtyJZhV2lQ

[Rb ver. 2.0]

ping

[brytlea]

Oh my goodness! LOL
susie

[SampleMan]

I love it when scientists argue. It generally means that there isn't really enough evidence to provide an answer, so the grant money is still up for grabs. The guessing will continue until a plurality of the community has written a papers supporting one position and have their professional reputations pegged to it. Then that position will become the accepted truth, and all further research to the contrary will be crushed with belittlement.

[radiohead]

OMG!! I saw that a couple of years ago. I must have been traumatized because I'd forgotten all about it. Oh man, I love me some Spock and Leonard Nimoy, but what.was.he.thinking???

[MDspinboyredux]

Couldn't.......look......away.......

.....so...beautiful.....

....should have sent a poet......

[Disambiguator]

I think Peter Jackson had a better take on the story.

[webstersII]

"Then that position will become the accepted truth, and all further research to the contrary will be crushed with belittlement."

Good summary.

[The KG9 Kid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J6vAPanyJk

[Clemenza]

Those friggin' Hobbit movies were some of the worst load of merde I have ever seen. Just a bunch of annoying twits walkingn through New Zealand.

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Note: this topic is from October 2006. Blast from the Past. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. 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
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·