More Bones Support Mini Human Case

[Ripley]

The discovery of additional bones in an Indonesian cave support a stunning claim made last year that a new species of a very small hominid existed at the same time as modern humans.

When Michael Morwood and Peter Brown of the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, and their team announced last October that they had found the partial skeleton of a meter-tall human in the cave of Liang Bua on the island of Flores, they raised a few eyebrows. Although the bones were tiny--particularly the skull, which had the brain volume of a chimpanzee--the teeth, jaw and cranium were described as similar to those of members of our own genus, Homo. The evidence, including stone tools, signs of fire and the bones of a dwarfed elephantlike beast, dated to about 18,000 years ago and prompted the scientists to assign the human remains to a new species, Homo floresiensis. Rebuttals ensued. Some proposed that the mini-human was a pygmy; others suggested that the skull came from a modern human who had suffered from microcephaly, a birth defect that results in a very small head.



http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=00080FAC-32C9-134C-B2C983414B7F0000

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Next venue for exploration: N. Australia

If they find evidence of Floresiensis there, the whole picture of ancient humanity changes.

--p!

[Ripley]

2. No shit. This is a big little find.

:)

[brainshrub]

3. The Spaghetti Monster is using HIS noodley appendage to alter findings.

Don't believe these so-called "scientists." The world was created by "HIM."

[Maat]

8. Ramen.

The Earth is only as old as a spaghetti noodle! (the one in my refrigerator)

[alfredo]

11. They have found some 4,000 year old noodles

in China. They were under an overturned bowl.

http://tinyurl.com/8klmn

BEIJING - And you thought your leftovers were old. A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles has been discovered at an archaeological site in western China — possible proof for the argument that China invented pasta before Italy.

"These are definitely the earliest noodles ever found," said Lu Houyuan, a researcher with the Institute of Geology in Beijing who studied the ingredients of the pristinely preserved pasta.

[Maat]

12. Eeewww ... thanks, alot, Alfredo!

I won't be eating that dessert now ... thanks for helping with the weight loss.

(just kidding).

Glad we found them, I guess. I'll let my Pastafarian husband know; this could be really important.

[alfredo]

18. Is this an evolutionary branch from the Spaghetti monster's

line? Or is it a sign of a short lived mutation.

[Miss Chybil]

4. Vedddy Interestink...

The more we know, the more we know we don't know.

[A Simple Game]

5. I know noothingg!

I'm just a good little intelligent designer.

[Betsy Ross]

6. I thought this was political

Skull and Bones support for *

[Akoto]

7. In my scientific opinion ...

That is clearly a leprechaun skull. :evilgrin:

[PassingFair]

9. Not leprechauns. Worse, much worse...

We want you Sssally.......

[NinetySix]

10. I'm surprised no one has mentioned Hobbits....

n/t

[Adrian Luca]

14. Ummm, actually...

I saw a one hour documentary on these fossils, and the Australian discoverers DO refer to them as hobbits. They are also referred to as hobbits by the Australian media.

[AllyCat]

13. But is this intelligent design? nt

[rodeodance]

15. Wash Post article mentions these finds and speaks of Hobbits.

....Evidence of sophisticated toolmaking and the ability to hunt and prepare game soon earned the original fossil -- of a 30-year-old woman -- the nickname Hobbit, after the tiny but able characters in the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasies.

At first researchers suggested that the diminutive hunters were the products of "island dwarfing": the tendency of large creatures living on isolated islands with few predators to grow smaller to adapt to limited resources, while small animals grow larger to be able to compete.

Ancient Flores also had pygmy elephants as well as large Komodo dragon lizards and giant rats. The Morwood team suggested that the Hobbit was a reduced-size evolutionary adaptation of Homo erectus , an early human ancestor that arrived on Flores about 800,000 years ago.

Still, "no erectus ever made the tools" from Liang Bua, Phillips said in a telephone interview. In fact, paleontologists agreed that no species apart from modern Homo sapiens -- with an 85-cubic-inch braincase -- was capable of making the blade tools and points found with the Hobbit remains. This gave rise to the theory that the Hobbit was a modern human with dwarfism............

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/11/AR2005101101548.html

More Fossil Evidence From 'Hobbit' Island

Tiny Ancestors of Modern Humans May Have Lived in Indonesia Just 12,000 Years Ago

By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 12, 2005; Page A03

[BiggJawn]

16. Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins!

Greatest little Hobbit of them all....
So did they find a lot of fossil hair around the toe-bones?

See the video here:
http://homepage.mac.com/evanbaumgardner/iMovieTheater6.html

[superconnected]

17. I bet Sauron wiped them out.

Just like he's trying to do to us.