'homo Floriensis'

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Wolfyu
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Post by Wolfyu »

Has anyone else heard of these newly discovered (extinct) creatures? Well...creatures may not be the word. Some scientists say that they are a new descendant of Homo Erectus, and others say that they're a subspecies of Homo Sapien...

(Quoted from this article.)

"Australian scientists last month made world headlines by announcing the discovery of a new twig in mankind's family tree, 'homo floriensis', a one-metre (3.25 foot) hominid with a grapefruit-sized skull.

Their theory, published in the British weekly scientific journal Nature, was that it was the smallest of the 10 known species of the genus Homo, the hominid that arose out of Africa about 2.5 million years ago.

Jacob said his team will aim to prove that the skeleton is from a 25-30-year-old omnivorous sub-species of man, not a 30-year-old female from the new species as previously announced.

They believe the skeleton's small skull is related to mental defects rather than being evidence that it is a different species.

In an intriguing development last month, researcher Bert Roberts of the University of Wollongong told the Australian newspaper that the new skeleton sounded remarkably similar to the Ebu Gogo, strange hairy little people that legend says lived on Flores. "


Here's another article that focuses more on the actual creature.

I'm currently trying to find more articles on this rather interesting discovery. I am intriged, to say the least. If I find more articles, I'll try to post them here. :)
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Robbieb
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Post by Robbieb »

yea i just herd about these yesterday its so cool. and the facvt that some scientist think they could still be alive in secluded areas of the forest is even cooler.
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Jay
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Post by Jay »

I also heard about this and find it interesting. I don't know how they can prove anything one way or another, however, (including ruling out hoaxes, which seem to occur every century) without finding more mostly complete skeletons. (And why haven't they?)
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okapi_07
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Post by okapi_07 »

that is a good question
if this really is a new species/subspecies why haven't they found more remains?
i really do hope this is truly a new type of man; that would be an awesome discovery especially because they would be pretty much the only species besides Homo sapiens alive in the last 10,000 years
Capt.Rutlinger
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Post by Capt.Rutlinger »

the coolest part is: it's possible they find a hair or something wich still has DNA, so they maybe can recreate them (I do not only mean cloning, but also if you have DNA you can get a lot of info of it's origin,....)

A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.
Edward Teller (1908 - 2003)
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