[IP] Scientific Discovery of Immense Proportions Overwhelmed by News of the Moment
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dee Smith <deesmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 30, 2004 9:09:12 AM EDT
To: 'David Farber' <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Scientific Discovery of Immense Proportions Overwhelmed by
News of the Moment
Reply-To: deesmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dave:
In all the fuss over politics and the election, one of the most
astonishing scientific discoveries of our time is being overlooked,
which in itself is a sad commentary on the state of affairs. Here is
one article on this breathtaking discovery for IP, if you like…
Dee Smith
CEO, Strategic Insight Group
'Hobbit' Skeleton Could Rewrite Prehistory
By
DPA
TechNewsWorld
10/30/04 3:00 AM PT
The tiny humans may have been hunted by large lizards -- bigger
versions of the Komodo dragons that still roam the island and which
have been known to eat people. Most of the prehistoric fauna on Flores
was believed to have been wiped out by a volcanic eruption 12,000 years
ago, but local tales suggest the intriguing possibility that its race
of dwarfs may have lived on.
The discovery of a skeleton of a woman barely one meter tall who hunted
pygmy elephants and giant rats 18,000 years ago could rewrite the
origins of humanity, scientists in Australia said Thursday.
The perfectly preserved skeleton, about as big as a modern 3-year-old
and with a grapefruit-sized skull, was found in a cave on the
Indonesian island of Flores, about 600 kilometers east of Bali.
The female, nicknamed the Flores Hobbit, has been identified as a
completely new member of the human race in the latest edition of the
journal Nature.
The skeleton of the 30-year-old woman was found by a team from
Australia's University of New England and the Indonesian Center for
Archaeology in Jakarta.
New Species
"At first we thought it was a child," University of New England
professor Mike Morwood said. Instead, it was an adult female. The
remains of six more little people have been unearthed in the Liang Bua
limestone cave that also contains volcanic ash from an eruption that
might have wiped out the ancient species.
"It's a new species of human who actually lived alongside us, yet were
half our size," Morwood said. "They were using fire to cook in hearths.
They were making sophisticated stone tools associated with the hunting
of big game. So despite their very small brains, this hominid
population was doing sophisticated things."
The miniature humans, called Homo floresiensis, existed alongside our
own species, Homo sapiens, for tens of thousands of years and might
have died out only 500 years ago.
The find was hailed as one of the most important human origin
discoveries of the last 100 years.
Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in
London, said: "This has really re-written the textbooks. To have this
creature present less than 20,000 years ago is astonishing. In terms of
the bigger questions of human evolution as a whole, and how complex it
was and how much we still have to learn, I cannot underestimate its
importance."
Little People, Big Rats
Evolution ran a different course on Flores. Besides the tiny people,
elephants the size of ponies and rats as big as dogs roamed the island
and were probably hunted by Homo floresiensis.
The primitive humans may themselves have been hunted by giant lizards
-- even bigger versions of the huge Komodo dragons that still roam the
island and which have been known to eat humans.
Most of the prehistoric fauna on Flores was thought to have been wiped
out by a volcanic eruption 12,000 years ago, but the stories suggest
the intriguing possibility that its race of dwarfs may have lived on.
Folk tales on remote Flores tell of a tribe of hairy little people
called "ebo gogo" living in caves who ate their food raw and had their
own primitive language.
Living Still?
"There have always been myths about small people -- Ireland has its
Leprechauns and Australia has the Yowies," New England University's
Peter Brown said. "I suppose there's some feeling that this is an oral
history going back to the survival of these small people into recent
times."
Stringer said the discovery raised questions, such as where the
creatures came from, whether or not they spoke a language, and how they
might have been regarded by modern humans.
Another riddle is the tiny brain of Homo floresiensis, which at 380
millimeters is smaller than a chimpanzee's. Scientists had thought that
there was a brain size threshold for human intelligence which was much
larger.
"The find is startling," Robert Foley of Britain's Cambridge University
told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's breathtaking to think that such a
different species of hominid existed so recently."
© 2004 Deutsche Presse-Agentur. All rights reserved.
© 2004 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.
Gordon Dee Smith
Chief Executive Officer
Strategic Insight Group
Advanced Intelligence Solutions
6777 Camp Bowie Blvd.
Suite 100
Fort Worth, Texas 76116
Tel: 817-377-4700
Fax: 817-377-4766
Web: www.sigintelligence.com
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