Anthropologists uncover jawbone of another ancient "Hobbit" on Indonesian

[emad]

Anthropologists uncover jawbone of another ancient "Hobbit" on Indonesian island

By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer


Scientists digging in a remote Indonesian cave have uncovered a jaw bone that they say adds more evidence that a tiny prehistoric Hobbit-like species once existed.

The jaw is from the ninth individual believed to have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago. The bones are in a wet cave on the island of Flores in the eastern limb of the Indonesian archipelago, near Australia.

The research team which reported the original sensational finding nearly a year ago strongly believes that the skeletons belong to a separate species of early human that shared Earth with modern humans far more recently than anyone thought.

The bones have enchanted many anthropologists who have come to accept the interpretation of these diminutive skeletons marooned on Flores with dwarf elephants and other miniaturized animals, giving the discovery a kind of fairy tale quality.

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051114/SPNEWS01/110130089

[RoBear]

1. Another one of those "believer-tester" clues...

Kinda like fossils. Gawd put 'em there to test our faith. Praiz Jeebus!

Sorry--I NEED the atheist meetup tonight!!!

[xchrom]

2. cool.

i love reading about this story.

[freethought]

3. Whenever I read about this or related stories

I keep thinking about a guy I used to work with. A practicing Christian but a nice guy.
We had a long running debate on evolution, human evolution in particular. His side was that evolution could never be proven. My side was that evolution is a real phenominae. With regard to human evolution , my side was that 1. People do not have a correct picture of how the human species came to be. That it is, more often than not, distorted or incorrect. 2. The story of human evolution is not fully understood yet, there may be gaps or things not fully explained. Yet, that is! Given time and some new discoveries more pieces of the puzzle will be added.
It was a lively debate. I don't think a winner was ever declared. Hmmm.