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The Mini Dinosaurs from the Harz Mountains
FiReaNGeL writes "When unusually small dinosaur fossils were found in a quarry on the northern edge of the Harz Mountains in 1998, it was initially assumed that these were the remains of a group of young dinosaurs. This was a fallacy, as the Bonn palaeontologist, Dr. Martin Sander, recently discovered. At a maximum estimated weight of one tonne, they were only a fiftieth the weight of their closest relatives, the brachiosaurs, and thus by far the smallest of the giant dinosaurs which have ever been found."
How do we explain pigme people in africa? And what is to say these hobbit people originated on the island. It could be very well be that they came ot the island after fleeing from somewere else. As evolution placed the genes in pigmes, it could be the same with the hobbit people. Once it is there, it stays until watered down by outside influences just like the pigme people in africa.
Could it be that we just don't have enough fossil or other records to even prove our current theories as fact. Sure everything points to it being this or that but what if we are missing a very large portion of the story.
Also don't forget the dwarf woolly mammoths that inhabited Wrangel island until a few thousand years ago (well in to the current interglacial).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_mammoths
Clearly there are multiple factors at work that affect dwarfism or gigantism. It's not possible to predict the effects of living on an island for any particular kind of animal without a lot more information. This other information might include, size of island, nutritional requirements, habitat, population dynamics, behavior, climate, other animals (predators and competitors for resources), topography, behavior, and probably much, much, more.
NOTE: IANAEB (I am not an evolutionary biologist).