Holy Fucking Prometheus on a Pogo Stick
The fact that Homo erectus gave rise to localized species in South-east Asia suprises me not at all. Indeed, yeasterday, yesterday!, I just suggested to a fellow conworlder an "alternate pre-history" scenario, in which some Homo erectus crossed Wallace's Line, and, having crossed Wallace's Line and experienced an ecological break-out, developed to advanced levels comparable to us sapiens. That was yesterday that I suggested that! I'm a fucking psychic!
Nature Special (several takes):
http://www.nature.com/news/specials/flores/index.html
Other articles:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3948165.stm
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000B7CEA-EA31-117E-AA3183414B7F0000&ref=rdf
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=00082F87-7D35-117E-BD3583414B7F0000&ref=rdf
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6346939/
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996588
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2141-2004Oct27.html?sub=new
But it's more than just local species descended from Erectus in South-east Asia. As amazing as it is, it's more even than the fact that they were using tools unmatched by the Neanderthals; unmatched, in fact, by anything made by anything other than Homo sapiens sapiens.
It's more than that. For one thing, they were just over three feet tall! They were an island-endemic species that had been dwarfed, just like pygmy island elephants, pygmy island hippopotami, pygmy island deer, etc. Their cranial capacity, at 380 cubic centimeters is barely a quarter that of modern Sapiens, a half or less than their ancestral Erectus. Small, in fact, for a chimpanzee. And still they could produce tools of incredible sophistication. This shows a) the big brain is optional, if there's enough pressure for it to be small-but-complex, and b) that evens sophisticated humans are subject to the same evolutionary processes as other animals.
Oh, and they've found more than one skeleton, so it's not just some individual Erectus with dwarfism.
But it's more than that. The youngest of the remains date to the Late Oh-My-God Pleistocene. They may just 18,000 years old, or younger. That's 10,000 more recent than the current date for the extinction of the Neanderthals. In other, that cuts by a third to a half the amount of time we've been the sole surviving human species. That means they co-existed with modern sapiens for around 40-50,000 years in Indonesia!
And indeed the modern people of Flores have "incredbily detailed" legends about hairy, meter-tall people living on a nearby island who murmured to each other, and could mimic their speech. The myths say that they were still around when the Dutch came, but oral traditions are generally bad with dates, so I'm extremely skeptical of that. It's not impossible, though.
I can't wait to get back on campus, so's I can get the full Nature article.
I mean, goddamn! This is big! This is possibly the most important find of my lifetime! So far, at least. The imminent discovery of life on Europa may take over that spot when it happens.
And my theories predicted it! I suggested advanced Erectus descended people on the other side of Wallace's Line because my theories said it could happen, and lo! it did! Hot damn!
Oh, yeah, and the eclipse was cool, too.
Nature Special (several takes):
http://www.nature.com/news/specials/flores/index.html
Other articles:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3948165.stm
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000B7CEA-EA31-117E-AA3183414B7F0000&ref=rdf
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=00082F87-7D35-117E-BD3583414B7F0000&ref=rdf
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6346939/
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996588
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2141-2004Oct27.html?sub=new
But it's more than just local species descended from Erectus in South-east Asia. As amazing as it is, it's more even than the fact that they were using tools unmatched by the Neanderthals; unmatched, in fact, by anything made by anything other than Homo sapiens sapiens.
It's more than that. For one thing, they were just over three feet tall! They were an island-endemic species that had been dwarfed, just like pygmy island elephants, pygmy island hippopotami, pygmy island deer, etc. Their cranial capacity, at 380 cubic centimeters is barely a quarter that of modern Sapiens, a half or less than their ancestral Erectus. Small, in fact, for a chimpanzee. And still they could produce tools of incredible sophistication. This shows a) the big brain is optional, if there's enough pressure for it to be small-but-complex, and b) that evens sophisticated humans are subject to the same evolutionary processes as other animals.
Oh, and they've found more than one skeleton, so it's not just some individual Erectus with dwarfism.
But it's more than that. The youngest of the remains date to the Late Oh-My-God Pleistocene. They may just 18,000 years old, or younger. That's 10,000 more recent than the current date for the extinction of the Neanderthals. In other, that cuts by a third to a half the amount of time we've been the sole surviving human species. That means they co-existed with modern sapiens for around 40-50,000 years in Indonesia!
And indeed the modern people of Flores have "incredbily detailed" legends about hairy, meter-tall people living on a nearby island who murmured to each other, and could mimic their speech. The myths say that they were still around when the Dutch came, but oral traditions are generally bad with dates, so I'm extremely skeptical of that. It's not impossible, though.
I can't wait to get back on campus, so's I can get the full Nature article.
I mean, goddamn! This is big! This is possibly the most important find of my lifetime! So far, at least. The imminent discovery of life on Europa may take over that spot when it happens.
And my theories predicted it! I suggested advanced Erectus descended people on the other side of Wallace's Line because my theories said it could happen, and lo! it did! Hot damn!
Oh, yeah, and the eclipse was cool, too.