Homo floresiensis

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A New Look at the Controversial "Hobbit" Fossil Skeleton

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Menouthis
04/22/09

In reply to A New Look at the Controversial "Hobbit" Fossil Skeleton
I don't understand why every time there is a post on evolutionary science that people divert attention from the science in the article to creationism.

If you don't believe in creationism, then don't bother with it at all. Don't mention it. Just discuss the scientific merit of the research. Every time someone takes it upon themselves to change the subject, he/she just diverts attention from a productive discussion that we could be having in the comments.

Jesus Christ.
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Tzepish
04/22/09

@Menouthis: I thought these comments were supposed to be 30% science discussion, 70% snark. My ratio might be a tad off, but I have no problem with this arrangement. Mostly I read these comments for their humor value anyway...
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Pope John Peeps II
04/22/09

@Tzepish: The problem is that the blanket anti-creationist bullshit comments are actually UNFUNNY excuses for people to demonstrate how "superior" they are. Pompous and boring are the opposite of funny.
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TheGreat&PowerfulTurtle
04/22/09

@Pope John Peeps II:

Oh ho ho. Another Peeps grumpygram. *yawn* How droll.
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Pope John Peeps II
04/23/09

@TheGreat&PowerfulTurtle: Well, the only thing more boring than me being unfunny is your unfunny commentary on it.

So how does it feel being the only man on the internet below me on the totem pole. Can you smell my crotch? I'm sitting on you right now.
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AvenueOfTheStrongest
04/22/09

In reply to A New Look at the Controversial "Hobbit" Fossil Skeleton
You want to find them in caves??? Have you seen The Descent or not?!
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Annalee Newitz
04/22/09

@AvenueOfTheStrongest: Love that movie. I was thinking of happy shiny caves, not caves filled with menstrual blood.
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BadUncle
04/22/09

In reply to A New Look at the Controversial "Hobbit" Fossil Skeleton
I just hope we find some living in some remote area of the forest, or in caves deep under Jakarta.

Annalee, didn't you see The Descent??
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NewRenzokuken
04/22/09

In reply to A New Look at the Controversial "Hobbit" Fossil Skeleton
Just an interesting note: apparently, there were legends in that region Indonesia of miniature people living in the forests long ago, leading to some speculation that a relict population of the species may have survived into historical times.
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limber
04/22/09

@NewRenzokuken: Yeah, the local legends are really fascinating. And isn't this the same area where there were miniaturized hippos and elephants, with the theory that they just evolved to favour smaller forms?
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Kevin Jones
04/22/09

@limber:

Miniaturization seems to happen on islands all over. It happened to mammoths on islands off the West Coast of America and Asia.
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limber
04/22/09

@Kevin Jones: Really! I had not heard about the American teeny mammoths. Cool.

Sort of makes you wonder about all the "fair folk" legends, when this stuff crops up. Not that I'm saying Ireland had this sort of hominid romping around, just that it's interesting that there might be proof of the legend in at least one culture.
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Kevin Jones
04/22/09

In reply to A New Look at the Controversial "Hobbit" Fossil Skeleton
It is funny how some humans, despite accepting and understanding evolution, still have this blind spot when it comes to our species. They can never accept that there were other species, some probably as capable as ours. Our ancestors probably new of them, new some of them, and may have even interbred. All you have to do is look at the alien sex articles here to realize there are humans that would screw anything that moved on two legs, and a few that would go as far as four.
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BaconCat
04/22/09

@Kevin Jones: I'm in anthropology and this has split it into two camps, the olds tend to think this is bullshit, but the news and the majority seem to say, why not, until proven otherwise. Also, there is no doubt in anybody's mind that Humans did Neanderthals. Like you said, we'd do anything. The question is, could that produce viable offspring or not. It's entirely possible it did something like Horse+Donkey = Mule. Infertile.
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Edouard Eldred
04/22/09

@Kevin Jones: I think it has more to do with the fact that if Homo floresiensis was a different species of Human, then it would completely throw out everything we believe in human evolution. As it is, we've always believed that with the next stage of evolution, we've gotten better, smarter, our brains bigger. Homo floresiensis threatens to prove that theory wrong and could show that evolution doesn't really have that much of a design. Or, that it might one day decide to go back to an earlier design.

As for Neanderthals, there's no evidence that we interbred with them, but scientists are slowly coming around to the idea that there could have been sexual relations with them. The only "suggestion" of an offspring was a skeleton found that bears the same bone structure of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. The only problem is, is that we don't have any (or enough) DNA samples from those remains to prove it.

I think the proflem scientists these days have is that, they like to think we know more about ourselves and our planet than we actually do. And once something like Homo floresiensis comes along, it threatens to undermine us. I personally think this is an amazing find and I've followed the story since the first remains were found. Not only could it show us a little more about how we work and how we evolved, but it also forces scientists to think outside the box, instead of following what others have said before them.
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BaconCat
04/23/09

@Edouard Eldred: Becoming smaller to fit the tiny island ecosystem is a perfect sign of evolutionary adaption and design, not the opposite.
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BaconCat
04/23/09

@Edouard Eldred: as for interbreeding, people knock boots with horses, dogs, and freaking snakes. I assure you, we bonked redheads with bushy eyebrows and big bones. Especially if we were young males who failed in the mating game in our own group.
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Pessimippopotamus
04/22/09

In reply to A New Look at the Controversial "Hobbit" Fossil Skeleton
Bilbo, no! What have the Elves done to you?!
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/22/09

@Ash69: Fuckin delicious.
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Pessimippopotamus
04/22/09

@crashedpc: Oh yeah. You know what those Hobbits fill themselves with. The choices fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms. And they smoke quite a lot. The good kind. In fact, they give the halfling flesh a delicious smokey flavour.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/22/09

@Pessimipposaurus: FEAST!
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CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard)
04/22/09

In reply to A New Look at the Controversial "Hobbit" Fossil Skeleton
Did they happen to find a ring with one of them by any chance!!??
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Gann
04/22/09

@CoffinDodger: Yes, but not by chance. By the will of the ring it was found.
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
04/22/09

@Gann: Does anyone know where it is. Ive been looking for that ring. Needs to find it.
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limber
04/22/09

@OW-Holmes, the housekeeper.: It was last seen in the custody of a muttering, hunched, wild-eyed creature. The biped clutched it to his chest, grumbled "waterboarding, yesssss, precioussss!" and then scurried off to an undisclosed location.
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mikecap
04/22/09

In reply to A New Look at the Controversial "Hobbit" Fossil Skeleton
How is this possible, if the Earth was called into existence by jehovah only 6,000 years ago??
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nutmeag
04/22/09

@mikecap: No, it wasn't. It was settled by the 12 colonies 250,000 years ago . . . which still doesn't explain things, b/c they were as tall as we are.
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BadUncle
04/22/09

@nutmeag: @mikecap: Both of you deny Zenu.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/22/09

@BadUncle: Cthulhu, please.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
04/22/09

@crashedpc: It's turtles all the way down.
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kagekiri
04/22/09

@mikecap: Perhaps Earth was created with age? Or the flood and the water in the atmosphere that was needed for it screws the crap out of our Carbon dating systems, which are calibrated for our current atmosphere (or our possibly incorrect projections of the world's older atmosphere)? Or Genesis' creation account is just a story about why the universe was made, not the mechanics and how?

/shrug, those are the theories I've heard.
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BadUncle
04/22/09

@kagekiri: You're saying the world is made out of "age?" Is that one of the noble gasses on the Periodic Chart?
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/22/09

@BadUncle: It's made out of Tori Kara-age. Delicious!
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Gann
04/22/09

@mikecap: The flying spaghetti monster has a good sense of humor. It planted these decoys with it's noodly appendage to confuse the faithless.
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Pope John Peeps II
04/22/09

@mikecap: If you're going to hijack a post with a snide little tangent about how stupid creationists are could you AT THE VERY LEAST make it funny, and not obviously all about how superior you are?
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TheGreat&PowerfulTurtle
04/22/09

@Pope John Peeps II:

Or in summation: GET OFFA MY LAWN!

Evolution clearly robbed you of a funny bone, grandpa.
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Pope John Peeps II
04/23/09

@TheGreat&PowerfulTurtle: No, it merely rendered me with a highly acute "stupid bullshit detector" and the inability to deal with pompous frauds.
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