Homo Florensis -Absolutely amazing, Earth shattering news

[Bonobo]

This just astounds me. We appear to have shared the Earth, up until a few hundreds years ago, with a pygmy species of Homo Erectus that was thought to have been extinct millions of years ago.

Conservative paleontolgist's heads are exploding right and left.

3 feet tall. No chin. Brain the size of a chimp's brain. Master of fire, tools and hunting. Wow, wow wow.

http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051011/sc_afp/sciencepalaeontology_051011160606

[rpannier]

1. Until you said master of fire, tools and hunting

I thought they had discovered scrub's ancient relatives.

[smirkymonkey]

2. There appears to be one left....

and he's sitting there, drooling and picking his nose, in the oval office.

[madeline_con]

3. You're killing me!

:rofl:

[rpannier]

31. It can't be scrub

The article said master of fire, etc. It did not say got burned trying to light a fire.

[smirkymonkey]

32. Maybe they were using "master of fire" in a figurative sense,

kind of like a "blowing shit up" master of fire, instead of a literal master of fire. :shrug:

[Straight Shooter]

4. No chin? From the photo it looks like it would have a chin.

What am I misinterpreting?

[Bonobo]

7. Good question.

I'm not a professional and I was just quoting the source who said "no chin", but I see what you mean. The photo seems to show a full-looking lower mandible.


Perhaps the mandible is comparable in thickness to our own but it was recessed due to the angke of the head, etc. and so gave a chinless appearance?

[Straight Shooter]

8. I'm seeing what you're seeing.

I guess it depends on what the meaning of "chin" is :)

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. There was a good BBC programme on this a few weeks ago

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4268122.stm

The "no chin" remark refers to the chin as seen in profile - Homo sapiens has a chin that protrudes, while Homo erectus and the 'hobbits' have a chin that slopes back towards the neck.

Homo erectus:

Homo sapiens:

[Straight Shooter]

17. Ack! Whose skull did they use for homo sapiens?

Lurch?

[Canuckistanian]

5. There were some dissenters at first

But this seems to be definitive. This microcephalis hypothesis should be blown away by now.
The 'island dwarfing' syndrome seems to have been proven correct.

[alfredo]

20. How do you explain the Ituri people (pygmys).

[Canuckistanian]

27. A different effect

Besides, they're not dramatically different from the current norm.

[alfredo]

33. It is odd that they inhabit nearly the same

region as the Watusi. In fact, they warred against each other.

[applegrove]

6. Very exciting. But I thought neanderthals were around to until about

30,000 years ago. Think what we have not yet found.

[alfredo]

9. Good picture of the skull

[Bonobo]

10. Wow. Thank you for that!

[alfredo]

19. It really gives a good idea of the size

of the person.

[MisterP]

11. this is actually relatively old news, but intriguing nonetheless

[sakabatou]

12. Didn't they call these guys hobbits?

[Lorien]

16. Yep, the whole article refers to them as "Hobbits" n/t.

[tenshi816]

28. Did they have big hairy feet? n/t

[Avalux]

14. Uh oh.

Wonder what the intelligent design folks will say about this? Incredible discovery.

[leeroysphitz]

30. GAWD put these "fossils" in that cave to test our faith.

That Gawd is such a prankster...

[lateo]

15. Interesting

[Jara sang]

18. Lot's of cultures have stories of "little people" in their mythos.

The Menehune in Hawaii for example.

[lildreamer316]

21. Fairy tales become reality

Dwarfs/elves/gnomes. Not a joke; after a few millenia these could have evolved into the myths we know today..........

[soothsayer]

22. Wait until we show you a living Yeti. Gonna' blow yer mind!

[bluedawg12]

23. They have a jaw, but probably a receding chin. n/t

[tenshi816]

29. So does my brother-in-law... n/t

[spuddonna]

24. Yeah, I think I read an article in Scientific American on that...

How does Intelligent Design explain this? :)

If God made humans in his own image, why would there be 'little people' like this?

[PassingFair]

25. I think I've seen these little critters before...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. I saw a special on them on some tv show less than a year ago. It was

very cool.