From: "Mr. Mystik" Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Hobbits are real!!!!!! Date: 3 Mar 2005 15:30:55 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lines: 103 Message-ID: <1109892655.693970.120280@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.81.77.72 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: posting.google.com 1109892660 19359 127.0.0.1 (3 Mar 2005 23:31:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 23:31:00 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: G2/0.2 Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com; posting-host=66.81.77.72; posting-account=7Q1iqgwAAABO1jaH9LvFOo7g51CUzLRQ Path: nightfall.franklin.ch!news1.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!switch.ch!news.mailgate.org!news2.euro.net!border2.nntp.ams.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsfeeder.wxs.nl!news.glorb.com!postnews.google.com!z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Xref: nightfall.franklin.ch rec.arts.books.tolkien:169998 'Hobbit' Brain Supports Species Theory 1 hour, 54 minutes ago By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer Scientists working with powerful imaging computers say the spectacular "Hobbit" fossil recently discovered in Indonesia had distinctive brain features that could justify its classification as a separate - and tiny - human ancestor. The new report, published Thursday in the online journal Science Express, seems to support the idea of a sophisticated human dwarf species marooned for eons while modern man proliferated. The new research produced a computer-generated model that compared surface impressions on the inside of the fossil skull with brain casts of modern and ancient humans, as well as chimps and other primates. The scientists said the model shows that the 3-foot specimen, nicknamed Hobbit, had a brain unlike anything they had seen before in the human lineage. The brain is chimplike in size, about 417 cubic centimeters. Yet the Hobbit's brain shared wrinkled surface features with the much larger brains of both modern humans and Homo erectus, a tool-making ancestor that lived in southeast Asia more than 1 million years ago. Some of those brain features are consistent with higher cognitive traits. These brain features coincide with physical evidence of advanced behaviors, such as hunting, firemaking and the use of stone tools, which were found alongside the bones in a cave on the remote equatorial island of Flores. To some, this suggests an organized society of tiny hunters flourished on the island for millennia at a time when modern humans dominated the planet. "This is a unique creature," said Florida State University anthropologist Dean Falk, who led the study. "We found amazing, specialized features across the surface from front to back." "These findings are consistent with the kinds of sophisticated behaviors that are hypothesized" for the Hobbit, Falk said, but she stopped short of saying the Hobbit was a tool-maker. In October, scientists from Indonesia and Australia caused an international sensation with their report of a trove of tiny fossils. As many as eight individuals were represented in layers that were dated from 95,000 to 12,000 years ago. The Hobbit skeleton was the most complete specimen and contained the only skull. In a project funded by the National Geographic (news - web sites) Society, Falk and researchers from Washington University in St. Louis created a three-dimensional computer model of the brain using CT scans of the interior of the Hobbit's skull. Known as virtual endocasts, these images show the wrinkles, vessels and other surface features that made faint impressions on the skull's lining. They compared that model with the brains of chimps, a female Homo erectus, a contemporary woman, a pygmy and a European specimen of a person with a small-brain syndrome known as microcephaly. Scientists say its brain shape is most closely associated with that of Homo erectus. However, it also reflects some features of modern humans, including: _A fissure near the back of the brain known as the lunate sulcus, similarly found in the modern human brain. "I almost fell over seeing this feature in something so small," Falk said. _A swollen temporal lobe, the mid-brain area between the ears where hearing, memory, image identification and emotions are processed. _A part of the frontal lobe near the eyes that is thought to be involved in planning and initiative-taking. Such advanced brain features were especially surprising because the rest of the skeleton has more primitive traits like coarse teeth and an apelike pelvis similar to human ancestors that emerged in Africa some 4 million years ago. "It's a really strange combination of traits," said Michael J. Morwood of the University of New England in Australia, one of the Hobbit's excavators. "It is a new, diminutive human species." Whether the Hobbit evolved into a dwarfed form of Homo erectus or hails from another, older human cousin is unknown, he said. ###### NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2005 17:37:25 -0600 Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2005 18:37:23 -0500 From: Robert Kolker User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Hobbits are real!!!!!! References: <1109892655.693970.120280@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> In-Reply-To: <1109892655.693970.120280@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: Lines: 25 NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.128.242.168 X-Trace: sv3-0lGqNPYmxUDiHP5pR8NIagBf2LXE3PbqCxtBP5aeuUYm7kzAjn1Wz5ID7UcsLEAZooL1tcvAw2MF4Ak!eFs4znWgZoXJZdfsvXy/5duC8QTjWCsddFPIGv229wd7N/4e8be/N+FCeZcbospiDvRYfobKIlHJ!cxA= X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.32 Path: nightfall.franklin.ch!news1.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!feed.news.tiscali.de!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!newshosting.com!nx01.iad01.newshosting.com!diablo.voicenet.com!216.196.98.140.MISMATCH!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Xref: nightfall.franklin.ch rec.arts.books.tolkien:170001 Mr. Mystik wrote: > 'Hobbit' Brain Supports Species Theory > 1 hour, 54 minutes ago > By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer > Scientists working with powerful imaging computers say the > spectacular > "Hobbit" fossil recently discovered in Indonesia had distinctive brain > features that could justify its classification as a separate - and > tiny - human ancestor. There is no evidence indicating that this short humanoid had hairy toes or a pot belly. It's skeleton was found in a portion of the world that has no resemblence to the Shire. They could have called this creature, just as truly, a munchkin. Does that mean that Oz exists? I blame the news media and the educational system that turns out scientific illiterates for this nonsense. Bob Kolker ###### From: Lord Jubjub Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Re: Hobbits are real!!!!!! References: <1109892655.693970.120280@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.4 (PPC Mac OS X) X-FACE: "\LJ/5EA;~k%mAErPj*&_K+tI#fz(4+WNg)5Z)pZA4{#aVTjw0>{-C}h~~X;G2ylL:Pm@^+"1$1o\mr(R,+~dT#>^1;}[N)J5\T=\VDpM]nF4Pw7&L6|NdUs,9]/{O"D6splJ Message-ID: Lines: 34 Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 01:55:33 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.69.141.35 X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com X-Trace: fe2.texas.rr.com 1109987733 66.69.141.35 (Fri, 04 Mar 2005 19:55:33 CST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2005 19:55:33 CST Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com Path: nightfall.franklin.ch!news1.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!cyclone.austin.rr.com!fe2.texas.rr.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Xref: nightfall.franklin.ch rec.arts.books.tolkien:170077 In article , Robert Kolker wrote: > Mr. Mystik wrote: > > > 'Hobbit' Brain Supports Species Theory > > > > 1 hour, 54 minutes ago > > > > By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer > > > > Scientists working with powerful imaging computers say the spectacular > > "Hobbit" fossil recently discovered in Indonesia had distinctive brain > > features that could justify its classification as a separate - and > > tiny - human ancestor. > > There is no evidence indicating that this short humanoid had hairy toes > or a pot belly. It's skeleton was found in a portion of the world that > has no resemblence to the Shire. > > They could have called this creature, just as truly, a munchkin. Does > that mean that Oz exists? > > I blame the news media and the educational system that turns out > scientific illiterates for this nonsense. First off, the official name for this creature is Homo floriensis. Secondly, the hobbit moniker was attached by one of its discoverers because of the similarity in height between this creature and Tolkien's imagination. -- Leader of the Slithy Toves