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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Note: he is holding a mouse.....










j/k :-P

No, I think it is a some kind of marsupial.

But if this discovery holds up, it's a really major discovery.

Hence the "j/k :-P" at the end. :-)


Not really. Its just a extreamly interesting discovery. A major discovery would be that a modern population is made up of them.

that got a chuckle. =D>

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. . . My moustache is touching my brain!!!!

Well, completely new human species that lived much later than the last Neanderthals...
I would call that a major discovery.

That would be one big rat!

I agree.

Very interesting.

Minor nitpick though... "Human species" is incorrect, since humans are a specific species, Homo sapiens. The word meant is probably "homonids". For all practical purposes, though, it doesn't make much of a difference.

The lasting till relatively modern times is absolutely amazing. It shows how rezilient some species can be in our line without changing at all. I just do not believe its a life altering event. :-)

They say there is evidence of Homo Erectus there too, so i wonder how they took eachother?

Considering that other one lived there 900,000 years ago and other one 18,000 years ago, I don't think they saw each other that much.

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"Stupidity gets denser in a crowd" - Old Finnish saying. [My website and My BLOG] [Nimblebrain forums]

I find this new discovery amazing. I always thought that it was a shame that we historical humans missed out in knowing Neanderthals by no more than twenty-five thousand years. Now we find we have missed a breathern species by thirteen thousand years. I think that the orphan race of moderns has missed something profound. The possibility of having a family member still alive would have given us all something that we will never know.

I grieve for our lost opportunity, just like I grieve for those individuals who are orphans today: bereft of family.

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I have grasped the bull by the tail and am lookin' 'im right in the eye.

A pair of pants would have been nice to have been discovered, too. 8-[

You can't go holdin' the lil' guys down, duuuuude. Get your repressing grasp away from me, maaaaaaan. He's free! Free like the wind! And he's not giving in to the evil of Big Pants.

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"I'm making wheatloaf. It's like meatloaf, only with wheat"
"Isn't that just...bread?"

I've read in my Flemish (supposed 'quality') newspaper that some scientists are even suggesting that the little buggers still were around on Flores 150 years ago, and that there may be some left on Sumatra. I can't give you a link, as it's a subscription-only website, and I only use the paper version... Anyone heard anything more of this?

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Knowledge is a curse, but ignorance is worse

I don't remember but do they say how old they think the species is?

edit. Yup: 95,000-12,000. So nevermind. For some reason i thought they lived together and this one just happened to of not died out. Shows me for skimming the article. ops: ops:

Doh! Where can i turn in my Anthro degree, i put it to shame. :-(

An English author named J.R.R. Tolkien claimed in 1948 that "hobbits" were still alive, though he didn't say where. He said they are shy of the big people and have developed the art of moving quickly and quietly so that they can disappear as if by magic. Many consider him the top authority on the subject, but I think he was a woo-woo - he believed in trolls and dragons too.

Perhaps, copy and paste into quotes. 8-[

Copyright infringement.

An anthropologist on NPR was saying yesterday that some of the island's current residents say that their grandparents used to tell stories about "little naked men" who lived in caves on the island. Scientists were interested in visiting those caves.

I am too, now. 8-[

Leprechauns! 8)

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"A witty saying proves nothing" Voltaire.
"All your bias are belong to us" Ara Pacis.

Just like my friends

Apart from the copyright infringement, I repeat: 'I only use the paper version'. My Windows (TM) version does not support a Ctrl-C on a paper... But it was referring to English antropologists, like gethen mentioned. Apparently they have done a search in 1995-1997 to spot the 'bushman' of Sumatra, and they have claimed to have spotted them repeatedly. But no pictures, no remains, nothing, so it's best to stay sceptic for the moment.

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Knowledge is a curse, but ignorance is worse

The term "human" refers to a genus, the human genus. Although it is mostly used in reference to Homo Sapiens.

Dictionary.com link

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"Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works."
Carl Sagan

Prehistoric dwarf bones found:
Oct. 27:
Scientists working on a remote Indonesian island have discovered the bones of a new race of hobbit-like dwarves wiped out by a massive volcanic eruption 12-thousand years ago. How do we know these are human bones? I.E. Not alien? If it's not a homosapien, then isnt it alien? Perhaps someone can teach me more about this?

There are several other threads discussing this discovery. It's not really astronomy related, but...
Is a chimpanzee an alien? What about Neanderthal man? Homo Erectus?

If you ask me, and I'm not an anthropologist, but just a guy who follows scientific progress, these short guys just represent a branch of the human family bush that got stuck on an isolated island and adapted to conditions there. Since it was favorable for smaller creatures to survive and make more of themselves, that's what we found.

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

I agree with Nowhere Man. There's no need to use aliens to account for a new discovery.