Jan. 29, 2007 — On the remote island of Flores, in what is now Indonesia, scientists in 2003 made a remarkable discovery — the remains of a pre-human being, only about three feet tall, who lived and thrived there until about 12,000 years ago.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2832747&page=1
I was curious at first why this story was coming up again. After all, its over a year old. But once I read \the article I clued in that this is just the next chapter in a long fight to get hobbits recognized.
Tolkein’s side is currently ahead. 
djm
yup…tests results are back…it’s a hobbit!
Y’know, they thought I was a new species when they discovered me too…then I dissapointed everyone and grew up to be just another man of Numenor… 
Gondor has no fossil. Gondor needs no fossil.
Yeah, try not to take that personally, Joe…
jus’ kiddin’ 
Its amazing what you can find under a rock these days. 
djm
Oi, you lot. Leave my ancesters alone.
I’m still waitin’ for somebody to find skeletons of the Nephilim. Sometimes, tho, I wonder if they (the reference and legend) are not just ancestral memories of Neanderthals, made to fit into a theology.
The fact that pygmies still exist in Africa didn’t seem to work into the discussion. I must be missing something here…
Peck!
The Neanderthals were not humans (in the Homo Sapiens sense), but rather another species that became extinct in Europe around 24000 years ago. They aren’t really our ancestors, we didn’t evolve from them. We in fact had already evolved when they existed.
I think Weeks meant H. sapiens’ ancestral memory of their neighbors.
Just a guess.
Not up on “current” theories - but back when I took classes, it was acceptable to classify “us” as Homo sapien sapien, and the others as Homo sapien neanderthal. This was a “nod” to the possibility that the two could have interbred - i.e. they are subspecies of the same species.
That was 20 years ago, so current thinking may be totally different…
Rigth-o. I heard the same theory about “trolls” in fairy tales, being same type o’ memories.
Well, it’s not Homo sapien neanderthal, as far as I know. I was taught Homo neanderthalensis. But it is acknowledged that, while we are not directly descended from Neanderthal man, there was probably some interbreeding and what not. They are still considered a separate “branch” of the same evolutionary “tree,” though. That is, both groups descended from Australopithecus, Neanderthal from one of the “robust” varieties, and Homo habilis (and eventually Homo sapiens) from one of the gracile. If I remember correctly.
Evolutionary biology = not my favorite subject. I’m sort of a cultural anthropology kind of dude.
Ah. My mistake. Sorry mate.
thanks - as I said, this was 20 years ago, and I’m sure the theory has modified since then.
Evolutionary biology = so easy, even a caveman can do it…
