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Author | Topic: Homo floresiensis | |||||||||||||||||||||||
RAZD Member (Idle past 1432 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
unfortunately that does not resolve the issue of the fossils being damaged. Jacob will be blamed for sequestering them away from other scientists availability to study, cast, cat-scan, etc.
does this mean that all that's of value now are the models that have been made? or can they be reconstructed at all?
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Darwin's Terrier Inactive Member |
Reconstructing fossils from broken bits is what palaeontologists do for a living, so I imagine that quite a lot can be salvaged. Still, it's really shitty that they should have to do it, and presumably lots of info has been lost for good, especially any chance of DNA.
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1432 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
that's kind of what I figured, that plus there are some {before} pictures to guide the process. still a sad day.
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Dr Jack Member Posts: 3514 From: Immigrant in the land of Deutsch Joined: Member Rating: 8.3 |
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | New 'Hobbit' disease link claim
There was a Horizon on this last night, but unfortunately I only caught the end. There seems to be a strong movement towards a disease-link claim - does anyone have any more scientific details?
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1432 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
I was just going to add that one.
Need more samples.
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Chimpoo Inactive Member |
Here's a link to a discussion on the Horizon documentary,with some of my thoughts.Enjoy!
http://www2b.abc.net.au/...n/newposts/1838/topic1838098.shtm
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roxrkool Member (Idle past 1016 days) Posts: 1497 From: Nevada Joined: |
The Andamanese Negrito (and other small people in the general vicinity) and Homo floresiensis, could they be related?
Here's an excellent and fascinating read about the Negritos (scroll down to the portion entitled "The Book"): The Andamanese Negrito
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Carson O'Genic Junior Member (Idle past 6139 days) Posts: 20 From: San Francisco, CA Joined: |
Thanks for that link, I've wasted most of my day getting sucked into that fascinating text.
Your question is an interesting one. I don't know the answer, and doubt anyone else does. I would assume that floresiensis evolved from ancestors that coloinzed that region of the world, which makes the Andamanese Negrito the closest living representations of the initial founder population.
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roxrkool Member (Idle past 1016 days) Posts: 1497 From: Nevada Joined: |
I'm glad you enjoyed the read. My father is the one who mentioned the Negritos to me, though he was referring to the ones living on the Philippine Islands. He was stationed on the Philippines years ago and remembered them clearly.
I have been somewhat following this floresiensis discovery and wondered why none of these small-statured people were mentioned at all. Especially since so many of them are found in that same area. Perhaps, it's simply too early for speculations of that sort. I'm sure it's been (and being) considered by researchers.
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Carson O'Genic Junior Member (Idle past 6139 days) Posts: 20 From: San Francisco, CA Joined: |
I beleive that despite the similarities in stature, H. floresiensis is still very different. The brain volume is very small compared to modern humans. Hence the hypothesis that it is a different species or a mutation/developmental defect.
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1432 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
I was just reading the Oct issue of Discover and it had this tid-bit:
Discover Financial Services
Now paleoanthropologists can put a hominid skull in a computed-tomography, or CT, scanner and create a virtual skull that they can split apart any way they want. If they remove that digital skull altogether, they leave behind the outlines of a virtual brain. In 2005 a virtual brain of the one known skull of Homo floresiensis”the three-foot-tall hominid discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores”provided evidence in the ongoing debate about whether the creature represents a separate species or was a human pygmy with a birth defect. The size and shape of the virtual brain lends credence to the separate species theory. Moreover, the brain was not just a simpler version of a human brain. Some regions were smaller than ours, but others were unusually large for such a small hominid, hinting that Homo floresiensis might have been capable of abstract thought and could make complicated plans. I would think that they would think ... differently. The areas that are larger than normal would not be consistent with the diseased H. erectus\sapiens hypothesis. by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share.
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Carson O'Genic Junior Member (Idle past 6139 days) Posts: 20 From: San Francisco, CA Joined: |
They found (small) tools in the same caves as the fossils, so that would lend credence to their ability for abstract thought.
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Ben! Member (Idle past 1425 days) Posts: 1161 From: Hayward, CA Joined: |
Here's a link to the Science article that the Nature article seems to be referencing.
Just a moment... Apologies to those who don't have access to the article; you can request a reprint from Dr. Falk's website if you really want. Here's the abstract:
The brain of Homo floresiensis was assessed by comparing a virtual endocast from the type specimen (LB1) with endocasts from great apes, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens, a human pygmy, a human microcephalic, specimen number Sts 5 (Australopithecus africanus), and specimen number WT 17000 (Paranthropus aethiopicus). Morphometric, allometric, and shape data indicate that LB1 is not a microcephalic or pygmy. LB1's brain/body size ratio scales like that of an australopithecine, but its endocast shape resembles that of Homo erectus. LB1 has derived frontal and temporal lobes and a lunate sulcus in a derived position, which are consistent with capabilities for higher cognitive processing. PubMed abstract
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Dr Jack Member Posts: 3514 From: Immigrant in the land of Deutsch Joined: Member Rating: 8.3 |
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | More Flores 'Hobbits' described
They're claiming to have found the skeletons of nine more individuals, so either this is a population of homo sapiens with some genetic, or pandemic, pathology (how unlikely this is, I don't know?) or it really is a new species.
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PaulK Member Posts: 17827 Joined: Member Rating: 2.3 |
It says "skeletal remains" rather than skeletons - which suggests that none of them is even close to complete. Unless they include a skull or at least a few jaws then I don't think that they will be that helpful. And if there had been a skull in reasonable condition I think that that would have been mentioned.
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