Ancient 'hobbit' humans new species after all: study

http://www.breitbart.com/index.php ^ | 5-6-09 | not given

[WL-law]

Diminutive humans whose remains were found on the remote Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 truly are a new species, and not pygmies whose brains had shrivelled with disease, researchers reported Wednesday.

...

Many scientists have said H. floresiensis were prehistoric humans descended from homo erectus, stunted by natural selection over millennia through a process called insular dwarfing.

Others countered that even this evolutionary shrinking, well known in island-bound animals, could not account for the hobbit's chimp-sized grey matter of barely more than 400 cubic centimetres, a third the size of a modern human brain.

...

A team led by William Jungers of the Stony Brook University in New York tackled the problem from the other end by analysing the hobbit's foot.

In some ways it is very human. The big toe is aligned with the others and the joints make it possible to extend the toes as the body's full weight falls on the foot, attributes not found in great apes.

But, in other respects, it is startlingly primitive: far longer than its modern human equivalent, and equipped with a very small big toe, long, curved lateral toes, and a weight-bearing structure closer to a chimpanzee's.

Recent archeological evidence from Kenya shows that the modern foot evolved more than 1.5 million years ago, most likely in Homo erectus.

So unless the Flores hobbits became more primitive over time -- a more-than-unlikely scenario -- they must have branched off the human line at an even earlier date.

...

Only more fossil evidence will tell us whether the hobbits of Flores evolved from Homo erectus, whose traces have been found throughout Eurasia, or from an even more ancient lineage whose footsteps have not yet been traced outside Africa, he said.

[anniegetyourgun]

http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

Perhaps some survived.

[BlueStateBlues]

Tom Cruise has finally found his true species.

[central_va]

Homo erectus

Tee hee, tee hee....

[Squawk 8888]

GGG ping

[blam]

"...from an even more ancient lineage whose footsteps have not yet been traced outside Africa, he said."

I vote for this one.

They're related to these folks:

Stranger In A New Land (Archaeology)

[Lizavetta]

Anyone that doubts that hobbits exist need only look at a picture of Senator Mikulski:

[Wneighbor]

Yes, but were those feet furry?

[BigEdLB]

That’s Mikulski? I thought that was Vicky Proudfoot, Bilbo Baggin’s cousin.

[CommerceComet]

Perhaps some survived.

All joking aside, there have been persistent reports from the jungles of Indonesia of small, bipedal hominids, called the Orang-Pendak. These reports had enough credibility that MIT sent a team of researchers to Indonesia to try to obtain some physical evidence. Is it possible that today's Orang-Pendak (if it really exists) is a relict population of this creature?

[anniegetyourgun]

Yeah, but do they build their houses with round doors?

[anniegetyourgun]

Uh...that didn’t come out right. They probably build their houses with tools!

[Pistolshot]

ID spam in 5....4.....3....2....

[Jaxter]

She might not be very tall but boy is she wide.

[techcor]

A little bump for later reading.

[count-your-change]

Right. Bring out the Java man for another tour.

[TBP]

Calling Bilbo Baggins!

[ExGeeEye]

pingie thingie

(Sorry to those I missed)

[fr_freak]

Nobody calls for Bilbo like this guy

[Oratam]

I think I recall the "Hobbit" find was troubling to scientists because it appeared this population was viable until fairly recently, i.e., within the last 100,000 years. Accepted science cannot tolerate another viable population of Homo surviving so far into the era of "modern" man so finds like this are labled "ape."

How are they gonna handle this?