Hobbits of the Non-Elijah-Wood Variety
Roughly a year ago, I was reading National Geographic (yes, I read National Geographic; all the cool kids are doing it, so shut up) when I got caught up in the cover story about a newly-discovered species of human so small they had been nicknamed "hobbits" by their Australian discoverers. These tiny people lived on the islands of Indonesia and their bones were a mere 18,000 years old, fresh in geological terms. While other failed attempts at the Homo genus were known to have coexisted with Homo sapiens earlier in history, this was not only fairly recent, it also shocked science by seeming to prove that the old rule of large animals on islands evolving into smaller forms was true even at the top of the evolutionary ladder.So, why am I bringing this up now? Because there was totally a story about it on "60 Minutes" last Sunday! I'm telling you, that's my new (old) favorite show. Anyway, a crew went to Indonesia where the bones were found and tribal people told stories of their "grandparents" meeting up with tiny forest people (!). If this is not a tribal legend and instead an account of actual events, then holy shit! There could be tiny people living on Earth and we don't even know it! What does that mean for overpopulation?!
posted by Becky Heineke at 6/13/2006 09:53:00 AM
Comments on "Hobbits of the Non-Elijah-Wood Variety"
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Anonymous said ... (12:32 PM, June 13, 2006) :
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Nothing Really Matters said ... (1:11 PM, June 13, 2006) :
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Becky Heineke said ... (1:25 PM, June 13, 2006) :
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Becky Heineke said ... (1:57 PM, June 13, 2006) :
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Becky Heineke said ... (2:25 PM, June 13, 2006) :
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Becky Heineke said ... (3:22 PM, June 13, 2006) :
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Becky Heineke said ... (3:26 PM, June 13, 2006) :
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Nothing Really Matters said ... (4:16 PM, June 13, 2006) :
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Becky Heineke said ... (4:54 PM, June 13, 2006) :
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Linna said ... (5:37 AM, June 14, 2006) :
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Becky Heineke said ... (8:24 AM, June 14, 2006) :
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matt of comooxdom said ... (7:05 AM, June 15, 2006) :
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Linna said ... (7:31 AM, June 26, 2006) :
post a commentHi again!
I saw a story kind of like that on tv about ten years ago, when scientist discovered a previously unkown tribe of people somwhere in Papua New Guinnea. That's really amazing! And brings hope in a way, that our entire planet isn't exploited. Question is for how long...
I also read somewhere that there is this tribe in Africa who has an ancient myth about the night sky, which is compatible with modern scientists knowledge about the solar system. How cool is that?! I'm so happy when it's evident that Western knowledge isn't the only way of knowing stuff!!
J.R.R. Tolkien obviously tried to keep the secret be failed. I saw something in the paper a while back about this and some other people that walk on all fours.
nrm, dude, you're going to have to tell me more about these people who walk on all fours. That seems like it would be painful but now I'm fascinated by the concept.
And linna, I know, it just sort of gives you a sense of peace knowing that there are still things in the world that are unknown, doesn't it? While I doubt tiny people are really going to show up in a cave somewhere in Indonesia, if they did, it would be a world-altering event. I'm going to look more into these guys...
Isn't there previously unknown plants discovered like everyday? Or is it just species getting extinct every day? Hrm... More likely with the second one I guess :( But some species that have been thought to be extinct have reappeared, so maybe there's a future for the little people too? :) Keep us posted!
No, you're right about the new species (and here's the science nerd in me coming out); I believe that there are around 2 million named species of organisms but scientists estimate there are anywhere from 10 to 15 million in existence (I'll have to look that up when I get home to make sure I'm not lying to you...but I know the numbers are outrageous). Hell, my dad is a botanist and he's discovered two new species of plants here in the U.S., a place that's definitely well-explored. But you're also right in that species keep disappearing and many probably go extinct without us knowing. Wouldn't that just blow your mind...if our tiny people friends went extinct in just the past couple of decades?! And we never knew...
That's like the money from my paycheck, it's there and it's gone and I never knew what happened...
Sorry, couldn't help myself...
But that's really mind blowing, that there's still so much we don't know about. The pessimist in me doubt however that we would be more careful with those species if we knew about them :(
And botanist, that's a cool profession! No wonder you have an interest in science! And isn't nerd the new cool? ;)
Nerds are SO in right now! :)
Linna who are you, I've never seen you post here before, unless i need my eyeys testing! Are you one of Prophecy girl's real friends or a net friend. I think you should get a picture, you sound fab!
Hey, thanks nrm! :) Happy to be welcome here! I found this page a while ago through Jake Watch (yes, I'm one of the obsessive ones as well...) and since overpopulation and environment issues concern and interest me a lot I really like it!
An Prophecy Girl has been very nice to me, so I keep coming back :)
As, for the picture, I just confessed to Prophecy girl earlier, I'm pretty much computer illiterate, but I think I managed to get myself a MySpace today (very boring so far...), so maybe one day, I'll have a picture :)
(2:48) that's "And Prophecy Girl..." Sorry...
Not implaying you're one of many, I believe in your uniqness! :)
Oh! Oh! You're on MySpace?! I'll have to find you...or you can just find me since there's a link off my profile (www.myspace.com/hrhbeckyjane) and send me a friendship request. I'm obsessed with MySpace for some unknown reason. nrm just joined over there, too! I love the sense of community Jake Watch has given us. It's like we're one big, happy internet family. :)
And nrm, you won't see many people here that I actually know because I think they're all too sick of hearing me spout this stuff in person. I don't really blame them. I'm fully aware that I'm occasionally over-the-top. :)
:) I'll do my best to do that! This is so much fun! :) Might take me a while tough, this is all so new to me, so much to be explored!
I like the family you get to choose much more the one you just get stuck with, even in the case of it being an internet family :)
OK, I tried to do something there... Have no idea how that turned out... Maybe you'll get some sort of email from me explaining just how much I just don't get this ;)
Linna find me as well. I have a Myspace. Don't worry mine is really carp and i have no idea.
OK, I got your e-mail, but I couldn't find you for some reason. Weird. OK, try this: go to my page (www.myspace.com/hrhbeckyjane) and you should see a flowery box under the picture (my MySpace name is Laurie Patridge) that says like, "IM ME," and "Message Me," blah, blah. Click on "Add Me," and you should get a screen that says, "Are you sure you want to add this person as a friend?" or something. Click "Confirm." I should then be able to confirm you the next time I log in, and then I'll direct you to nrm's page. Let me know if you have any problems!!
I meant Laurie Partridge!! I so can't spell! :(
Thanks so much for the help!! Now you see just how crappy I am at these things :) Hope I managed!!
I'll try to find you too nrm! So far I only have one friend on MySpace and it's Tom, the administrator, so I feel a little lonely ;)
Hey, nrm, I think I found you! :) I thought your page looked brilliant!! Now, mine is really crap! I don't get how you change anything, except for the picture and I'm really proud of myself for being able to do that!! So, if anyone wanna give tips, I'm all ears!
(How am I supposed to get any work done on that paper with so much fun going on? And the MESSAGE BOARD over at Jake Watch!! This is too much goodness!!)
Well...at least they'll take up less space, no?
Hrm... let's see if this is working... Sorry to use your space for such trivialities as my experimenting in newly discovered internet goodness! Hope I'm forgiven, promise to improve!!
Yay! It worked!! :)
(Seriously, I WILL improve and try to stick to the topics!)
There are tiny people living on Earth. They are called Tom Cruise and Michael J. Fox.
^^^ *snicker*
I love the fact that from a skeleton they can extrapolate that the 'hobbits' liked to go bowling but would not drink. "At weekends they probably went fishing with their in-laws" Bollocks.
If you dug up a midget now and you'd never seen one before - you'd be like "what the...?" - and conclude that this is a whole other span of homo sapien labelled "midget vexitus" or something equally random. I could do that job. Making stuff up. Easy. Hand me that pick axe.
I just saw that "60 minutes" on saturday!! So, yes, we're a few weeks behind over here, but that goes for pretty much anything (Brokeback Mountain isn't out on DVD yet for example...), so I'm not surprised... I SO want one of those tiny elephants!! How cool must they have been!?!
And when I was in Australia I came across this digging (don't ask me how...) and they had found bones from wombats the size of cows (wombats being a hairy pig-like animal that only exist in Australia, I think. They're really cute!). Would not want to meet one of those, but really cool that the whole Island-life-makes-you-shrink-theory has another proving example!