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Title: 'Hobbit' Skull Study Finds Hobbit Is Not Human
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URL Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090120144508.htm
Published: Jan 24, 2009
Author: n
Post Date: 2009-01-24 08:04:08 by gengis gandhi
Keywords: None
Views: 176
Comments: 14
'Hobbit' Skull Study Finds Hobbit Is Not Human ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2009) — In a an analysis of the size, shape and asymmetry of the cranium of Homo floresiensis, Karen Baab, Ph.D., a researcher in the Department of Anatomical Scienes at Stony Brook University, and colleagues conclude that the fossil, found in Indonesia in 2003 and known as the “Hobbit,” is not human. They used 3-D shape analysis to study the LB1 skull of the hobbit and found the shape of the skull to be consistent with a scaled down human ancestor but not modern humans. Their findings, reported in the current online edition of the Journal of Human Evolution, add to the evidence that the hobbit is a new species. The question as to whether the hobbit was human or another species remains controversial. Some scientists claim the hobbit was a diminutive human that suffered from some type of disease that causes microcephaly, which results in abnormal growth of the brain and causes the cranium to be much smaller than the normal human cranium. But Dr. Baab and co-author Kieran McNulty, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, believe their findings counter the microcephaly theory. “A skull can provide researchers with a lot of important information about a fossil species, particularly regarding their evolutionary relationships to other fossil species,” explains Dr. Baab. “The overall shape of the LB1 skull, particularly the part that surrounds the brain (neurocranium) looks similar to fossils more than 1.5 million years older from Africa and Eurasia, rather than modern humans, even though Homo floresiensis is documented from 17,000 to 95,000 years ago.” To carry out the study, Dr. Baab and colleagues collected 3D landmark data on the LB1 skull and a large sample of fossils representing other extinct hominin species, as well as a comparative sample of modern humans and apes. They performed several analyses of different regions of the skulls. Taken together, these analyses indicated that the LB1 skull shape is that of a scaled down Homo fossil not a scaled down modern human. The results of the analysis of the asymmetry of the skulls, which refers to differences between the right and left sides of the skull, refutes the suggestion that the LB1 skull was that of a modern human with a diagnosis of microcephaly. In modern humans, a high degree of asymmetry may indicate that the individual was diseased. At least one scientific study on the asymmetry of LB1 supported the argument that this individual had microcephaly. Conversely, Dr. Baab and colleagues found the degree of asymmetry of the LB1 skull was not unexpectedly high and therefore not supportive of the diagnosis of microcephaly. “The degree of asymmetry in LB1 was within the range of apes and was very similar to that seen in other fossil skulls,” says Dr. Baab. “We suggest that the degree of asymmetry is within expectations for this population of hominins, particular given that the conditions of the cave in Indonesia in which the skull was preserved may have contributed to asymmetry.” Dr. Baab recognizes that the controversy as to the evolutionary origins of Homo floresiensis will continue, perhaps without an answer. However, all the evidence that she and colleagues illustrate in their article “Size, shape, and asymmetry in fossil hominins: The status of the LB1cranium based on 3D morphometric analyses,” suggest that Homo floresiensis was most likely the diminutive descendant of a species of archaic Homo. The results of this study are also in line with what other researchers in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University have found regarding the rest of the hobbit skeleton. Drs. William Jungers and Susan Larson have documented a range of primitive features in both the upper and lower limbs of Homo floresiensis, highlighting the many ways that these hominins were unlike modern humans.
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#1. To: gengis gandhi (#0)
Turtle lives in a hobbit cave himself.
In politics there is no murder.
If not human, then what were they? Apes?
as with a great many other things, tales of 'little people' exist in many cultures, along with 'the watchers', giants, sasquatch, skinwalkers, doppelgangers, etc. yes indeed, it will get harder and harder for belief system addicts as we go along. as they realize that all they think they 'know' is really a bunch of cultural (cult-ural) indoctrination, their ego begins to fragment and shatter. since they tie these 'knowns' to their identity, identity with a small 'i', these new concepts are a threat to their very existence, existence with a little 'e'. subconciously, the belief system, ego identified meat person has a great conflict then, since they think themselves to be well put together, confident, knowing beings, then becoming aware of evidence that actually negates the very foundation of their 'knowns', they suffer a massive existential breakdown. its sort of like wiping the drive clean on a computer. there is no humility in the people who think they have it all figured out. pride before a fall, and all that jazz.
if a people will not prosecute officials who subvert and violate the constitution, then the constitution has no authority over officials. Gengis Gandhi, Troubled Genius
According to Judaism's most holy book only Jews are human. That's how the IDF soldiers can kill so easily in the Gaza strip, they consider the Palestinians animals.
God is always good!
People who think they have it all figured out are the greatest fools.
God is always good!
Turtle, how do you fit that big skull through that little hole?
Looks like a sewer pipe.
God is always good!
yes indeed, it will get harder and harder for belief system addicts as we go along. as they realize that all they think they 'know' is really a bunch of cultural (cult-ural) indoctrination, their ego begins to fragment and shatter. since they tie these 'knowns' to their identity, identity with a small 'i', these new concepts are a threat to their very existence, existence with a little 'e'. subconciously, the belief system, ego identified meat person has a great conflict then, since they think themselves to be well put together, confident, knowing beings, then becoming aware of evidence that actually negates the very foundation of their 'knowns', they suffer a massive existential breakdown. its sort of like wiping the drive clean on a computer. there is no humility in the people who think they have it all figured out. pride before a fall, and all that jazz. Very very well put. Michael Cremo (Co-Author of "Forbidden Archaeology" - who is despised by the Archaeologic Academic community because they can't disprove him) calls it the "Knowledge Filter". Anything which does not agree with the established world view, what the Academicians "know", is derided or ignored. Thus evidence suggesting a much much greater antiquity for anatomically modern man is ignored "as impossible" since they already know the answer. It is like arguing with a Bushbot or O'bot. I could give other examples but we both have it.
""I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
Not sure how to take this article. There is some evidence that the descendants still live on the island. That alone would preclude it being a separate species.
You are so right on this one as you are on many.
Turtle has a collapsible head.
In politics there is no murder.
Turtle, you are a man, er, reptile of many parts
Turtle is multitalented, as befits a proto-King.
In politics there is no murder.
been reading wilson's promethus rising. "Well, I picked up "guerrilla ontology" from the Physics/Consciousness Research Group when I was a member back in the 1970s. Physicists more usually call it "model agnosticism," and it consists of never regarding any model or map of Universe with total 100% belief or total 100% denial. Following internal linkKorzybski, I put things in probabilities, not absolutes. I give most of modern physics over 90% probability, the Loch Ness Monster around 50% probability and anything the State Department says under 5% probability. As Bucky Fuller used to say, "Universe is nonsimultaneously apprehended"---nobody can apprehend it all at once---so we have no guarantee that today's best model will fit what we may discover tomorrow. My only originality lies in applying this zetetic attitude outside the hardest of the hard sciences, physics, to softer sciences and then to non-sciences like politics, ideology, jury verdicts and, of course, internal linkconspiracy theory. Also, I have a strong aversion, almost an allergy, to Belief Systems, or B.S.---a convenient abbreviation I owe to David Jay Brown. A neurolinguistic diet high in B.S. and low in instrumental data eventually produces Permanent Brain Damage, a lurching gait, blindness and hairy palms like a werewolf. - RAW "
if a people will not prosecute officials who subvert and violate the constitution, then the constitution has no authority over officials. Gengis Gandhi, Troubled Genius
#2. To: gengis gandhi (#0)
#3. To: Ada (#2)
#4. To: gengis gandhi (#0)
#5. To: gengis gandhi (#3)
there is no humility in the people who think they have it all figured out. pride before a fall, and all that jazz.
#6. To: Turtle (#1)
#7. To: Turtle (#1)
Turtle lives in a hobbit cave himself.
#8. To: gengis gandhi (#3)
as with a great many other things, tales of 'little people' exist in many cultures, along with 'the watchers', giants, sasquatch, skinwalkers, doppelgangers, etc.
#9. To: gengis gandhi (#0)
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss — The Who
#10. To: Original_Intent, gengis gandhi (#8)
I could give other examples but we both have it.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss — The Who
#11. To: randge (#6)
Turtle, how do you fit that big skull through that little hole?
#12. To: Turtle (#11)
#13. To: randge (#12)
#14. To: Original_Intent (#8)
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