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Pygmy population near cave where Homo floresiensis fossils were found appears to have evolved short stature independently from the mysterious ancient hominins A fossil skeleton found in a cave on Flores Island, Indonesia, in 2004 turned out to be a previously unknown, very small species of human. Nicknamed the "hobbit" (officially Homo floresiensis), it remains a mysterious species with an unknown relationship to modern humans. Intriguingly, the current inhabitants of Flores include a pygmy population living in a village near the Liang Bua cave where the fossils were found. An international team of scientists has now sequenced and analyzed the...

For the past decade, a fossil human relative about the size of a toddler has loomed large in the story of our evolutionary history. This mysterious creature—found on the Indonesian island of Flores—has sparked a heated debate about its origins, including questions over its classification as a unique species. But now, a scattering of teeth and bone may at last unlock the mystery of the “hobbits,” also known as Homo floresiensis. The 700,000-year-old human remains are the first found outside Liang Bua cave, the site on Flores that yielded the original hobbit fossils. The much older samples show intriguing similarities...

Dr. Anthony Fauci crassly mocked “ass-backwards” restaurant patrons who removed their coronavirus masks when seated — and laughed at the absurdity of his own idea for anti-COVID-19 goggles, according to a new book. The inside account is included by former White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern in “Vignettes & Vino” — out Oct. 25 — which calls Fauci “awful” and an “egomaniac.” “[I]n January 2020, [Fauci] said the virus was nothing to worry about for the American people. Then in the months that followed, he said that people should not wear masks and that they were ineffective. By June or July,...

This will be short because it really does not need much comment. In fact, this is so absurd that I am just starting with the reference document because I am concerned no one will believe it. Here it is: Spanish Flu Gof 2.12MB ∙ PDF File – Read now Yes, that is right, Fauci and crew are now actively performing gain-of-function (GoF) work and infecting primates with the Spanish Flu. For those of you that are unaware, GoF does not have a single agreed upon definition but, as it relates here, is essentially the modification of the Spanish Flu virus...

VIDEO The question has to be asked, especially after watching Chuck Todd interview Beto O'Rourke in Iowa for "Meet The Press." Normally Todd interviews guests while sitting behind a desk. However, during his O'Rourke interview, Todd conducted the interview on his feet raising questions as to whether he is only as tall as a Hobbit.

Murids, as the rat family is known, are more taxonomically diverse than any other mammal group and are found in nearly every part of the world... The study was based on remains recovered from the limestone cave known as Liang Bua, where partial skeletons of H. floresiensis have been found, along with stone tools and the remains of animals -- most of them rats. In fact, out of the 275,000 animal bones identified in the cave so far, 80 percent of them are from rodents... The study encompassed about 10,000 of the Liang Bua rat bones. The remains spanned five...

Scientists digging in the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores years ago found a tiny humanlike skull, then a pelvis, jaw and other bones, all between 60,000 and 100,000 years old. The fossils, the scientists concluded, belonged to individuals who stood just three feet tall — an unknown species, related to modern humans, that they called Homo floresiensis or, more casually, the hobbits. On Wednesday, researchers reported that they had discovered still older remains on the island, including teeth, a piece of a jaw and 149 stone tools dating back 700,000 years. The finding suggests that the...

An ancient species of pint-sized humans discovered in the tropics of Indonesia may have met their demise earlier than once believed, according to an international team of scientists who reinvestigated the original finding. Published in the journal Nature this week, the group challenges reports that these inhabitants of remote Flores island co-existed with modern humans for tens of thousands of years. They found that the youngest age for Homo floresiensis, dubbed the 'Hobbit', is around 50,000 years ago not between 13,000 and 11,000 years as initially claimed. Led by Indonesian scientists and involving researchers from Griffith University's Research Centre of...

Diminutive humans that died out on an Indonesian island some 15,000 years ago were not Homo sapiens but a different species, according to a study published Monday that dives into a fierce anthropological debate. Fossils of Homo floresiensis--dubbed "the hobbits" due to their tiny stature--were discovered on the island of Flores in 2003. Controversy has raged ever since as to whether they are an unknown branch of early humans or specimens of modern man deformed by disease. The new study, based on an analysis of the skull bones, shows once and for all that the pint-sized people were not Homo...

After years of studying a mysterious thigh bone from a cave in China, scientists said on Thursday they believe it represents an ancient species of human that persisted much longer than previously thought. The 14,000-year-old bone was uncovered in 1989 in Maludong, known as the Red Deer Cave. The trove of fossils it was initially found with went unstudied until 2012. The partial femur, though relatively young in age, looks like the bones of far older species like Homo habilis and early Homo erectus that lived more than 1.5 million years ago, said the study in PLOS ONE. "Its young...

A 14,000-year-old thigh bone may upend human history. Unearthed in southwest China, this femur resembles those of an ancient species of humans thought to be long extinct by the Late Pleistocene, scientists say. The scientists compare the leg bone to ancient and modern human femurs in a paper published Thursday in the journal PLOS ONE, arguing that this specimen represents a population of ancient humans that lived surprisingly recently. If they're right, this could dramatically change the way we see human history. Today, our species, Homo sapiens, are the only humans to walk the Earth. But it hasn't always been...

A 14,000-year-old fragment of thigh bone found in a cave in China may represent evidence of the unexpected survival of long-vanished human ancestors. If so, then right into and through the ice age, a creature that was either Homo habilis or Homo erectus survived alongside the Neanderthals, the unknown humans who left behind some DNA in a cave in Siberia, the mysterious so-called hobbit of the island of Flores in Indonesia, and modern Homo sapiens. But by the end of this multicultural ice age 10,000 years ago, only one human species survived. The fossil, a partial femur, had survived unstudied...

It’s less than a week until The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies hits the theaters, putting an end to the six-part Middle Earth saga that began with The Lord Of The Rings trilogy in 2001, and continued with The Hobbit trilogy in 2012. So does the series do a good job of tying up all the loose ends in the franchise? Early reviews seem to indicate the third Hobbit film to be not only the best in the trilogy, but on par with that of the original trilogy.

Dear Diary: Some people look like their dogs; some like their spouses. You see they belong together, and you smile. This subway rider looked like, and belonged to, his thick book. Ginger hair, pulled back in a tail away from his ruddy baby face, matching his scruffy beard. Youthful and burly, rustic and earthy, dressed for the outdoors in a jacket and a pale red flannel shirt. Not yet spoiled by city life, innocent, unadventured, but poised to begin, clutching his treasured story in readiness. What was that book to him? Fiction? History? Autobiography? No clue from his silent eyes,...

Peter Jackson has said he won't be making anymore movies based on J. R. R. Tolkien's work, because the estate won't let him. SNIP The writer's son Christopher, who was appointed by his father as his literary executor, said that he was disappointed by the way the movies had diluted the artistry of the novels. He told Le Monde in 2012: 'Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed by the absurdity of our time. 'The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work and what it has become has overwhelmed me. The commercialisation has...

hortly after the climactic battle scene of this final instalment of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit series gets underway, an outsize troll-like monstrosity with a pointed stone headpiece runs full tilt into a fortress wall, making a breach through which a bunch of orcs and other malevolent nasties can pour through. The troll, or whatever it is, lies full length on the ground, stunned; entirely disregarded as its compadres swarm past. Well, I can sympathise entirely; I reeled out of the cinema in bit of a daze myself after this extended dose of Jackson’s patented ye olde Middle Earth cranium-smashing.

Oct 23, 2014Bob Yirka Homo floresiensis adult female - model of head. (Phys.org) —It's been ten years since the bones of Homo floresiensis, aka, the "hobbit" were uncovered in Liang Bua, a cave, on the island of Flores in Indonesia, and scientists still can't agree on the diminutive hominin's origins. This month, the journal Nature has printed a comment piece by Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London and two pieces by Ewen Callaway, one a retrospective with interviews with the central players, and the other a podcast with the four principle scientists involved in the find—Bert Roberts,...

Perhaps explaining why those Hobbit movies cost so much damn money to make, Entertainment Weekly has revealed that The Hobbit: The Battle Of Five Armies will end with a 45-minute battle scene. Director Peter Jackson spoke with EW about the logistics of creating such an epic climax. “We have dwarves and men and elves and orcs, all with different cultures, with different weapons, and different shields and patterns and tactics,” Jackson explains, before sharing the highly scientific way he maps out his fight scenes:

This past summer my junior honors theology students read The Hobbit in preparation for their morality class this fall. While reading, I discovered why so many enjoy The Hobbit. We can connect so well with Bilbo Baggins and the other characters because they are so real, so like us. One can also find many “hidden” parallels or analogies to the Catholic Faith if they are truly sought out. What draws so many readers to The Hobbit is this central Christian message: there is a Bilbo Baggins inside of us who is faced with a decision whether or not to...

Ever wished you were a hobbit? Well now you can experience how Bilbo and Frodo Baggins live by visiting Balade Des Gnomes, a unique hotel in Belgium. Near the picturesque town of Durbuy in Belgium, the wooden topsy-turvy rooms feature carved wooden beds that look like they are nestled in the hollow of a tree, a dining table perfect for goblin guests and a gothic, ornate bath. The Hobbit, travel, holiday, short breaksFANTASY: La Balade Des Gnomes is the perfect location for Lord Of The Rings fans [CATERS] The Hobbit, hotel, travel, short breaks, holidayCOSY: Wooden beds look like they...