Re: Scientists Find Prehistoric Dwarf Skeleton

From: deowll (deowll_at_bellsouth.net)
Date: 10/30/04 

Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 23:21:46 -0500

"Kermit" <unrestrained_hand@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2b38d8c5.0410291252.2d703f44@posting.google.com...
> algis@RiverApes.com (Algis Kuliukas) wrote in message
> news:<77a70442.0410271756.68a58a00@posting.google.com>...
>> MrPepper11@go.com (MrPepper11) wrote in message
>> news:<57cfd534.0410270938.209bfc3e@posting.google.com>...
>>
>> A fascinating find, indeed, Mr Pepper.
>>
>> A couple of initial thoughts...
>>
>> > October 27, 2004
>> > Scientists Find Prehistoric Dwarf Skeleton
>> > By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>>
>> [..]
>>
>> > Now, researchers suggest H. erectus spread to remote Flores and
>> > throughout the region, perhaps on bamboo rafts. Caves on surrounding
>> > islands are the target of future studies, they said.
>>
>> 1) I don't understand this presumption that these hominids must have
>> built rafts to get there. Look at any map of the region and you'll
>> find that even today the greatest distance between two Indonesia on
>> each side of the Wallace line, Bali and Lombok, is at most about 22km.
>> At the Last Glacial Maximimum it must have been even less.
>>
>> Why is it so astonishing that they might have actually swam there,
>> even by accident? The next island in the chain would certainly be
>> visible from the previous one.
>>
>
> How did the other animals get there? The stegodons, the other land
> animals? If they were descended from Asian homo erectuses (?) they may
> have been there for a million years or more.
>
>> 2) About the tiny brain size. Isn't this rather a blow to the bigger
>> brains for greater intelligence idea? Henry Gee seems to agree. "The
>> whole idea that you need a particular brain size to do anything
>> intelligent is completely blown away by this find."
>
> It only blows away the idea that brain size is the whole story. Total
> body size determines brain size to a significant degree. Women have
> smaller braqins than men, but they have smaller bodies, too. The
> proportion of cerebral cortex to total size may have more to do with
> it than size alone. Also, some animals, such as the parrots and crows,
> may have a stronger selective pressure to minimize size of brain, even
> while they are getting smarter for other reasons. A 70 kg hominid
> doesn't care much about a few extra grams of mass, but a flying
> animal would.
>
> How big were hobbit brains proportionally?
>
Very, very small. The best skull by far was female about 3.3 feet tall and
50 pounds or less seems to be about as big as we know about. Those are the
high end numbers I found.

>>
>> 3) If anecdotal stories about these 'Ebu Gogo' (the local name for
>> these little people) in legends from Flores people can be linked to
>> this species, H. foresiensis were hairy. This is certainly a new twist
>> in the thinking on the evolution of nakedness in H. sapiens.
>>
>> Algis Kuliukas
>
> I suspect we lost our fur in order to cool off while traveling on foot
> for long distances, especially at high speeds. These little guys, in
> the jungle on an island, would not be marathoners, and either never
> lost their fur or could quickly grow it back (evolve it again) if it
> had a slight advantage for nonrunners. I assume it does, for every
> mammalian species seems to have fur unless it has a clear need to be
> nekkid (e.g. whales, humans, naked mole rats).
>
> Kermit
> Also, they obviosly lost half the information for growing tall...

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