Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Scientists Hope To Settle "Hobbit" Debate

Posted by kdawson on from the little-men dept.

Several readers wrote in with news of the debate around the identity of an ancient woman whose diminutive skeleton was found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2004. Fox News reports that Australian scientists have discovered a subterranean chamber that may contain DNA proof that will settle the question of whether "the Hobbit," as the specimen is called, actually is a representative of a new branch of the human family, or not. The find's discoverers named the putative new race Homo floresiensis. Others in the anthropological field question this identification, arguing that the meter-tall Hobbit was a modern human who had something wrong with her. In a paper just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with one of the original discovery team as co-author, researchers say they have compared the Hobbit's skull to those of modern humans with various ailments such as microcephaly, and that the Hobbit is different.

22 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Trolls too... by racecarj · · Score: 5, Funny

    Another one of Tolkien's races has been discovered: Trolls, it seems, are native to the slashdot community.

    1. Re:Trolls too... by andy314159pi · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hobbits suffer from microcephaly but Trolls suffer from microphallus, which is quite different.

    2. Re: Trolls too... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny

      > Although My humongous 4x4 pickup truck is more or less out of neccesity, I don't think I would trade it for anything else (even if i didn't have a need for it).

      Bah, real men drive six-wheeled armored cars.

      With a great big gun sticking out the front...

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  2. Great but... by Frogbert · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now they will have to find what came between Homo Sapian and Homo Floresiensis. /ducks for cover.

  3. hmmm by macadamia_harold · · Score: 5, Funny

    Others in the anthropological field question this identification, arguing that the meter-tall Hobbit was a modern human who had something wrong with her.

    Maybe she just hobbitually ate a poor diet.

    --
    Push Button, Receive Bacon
    1. Re:hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm pretty shire that's the case.

    2. Re:hmmm by Bamafan77 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I can't confirm it, but it certainly rings true.

    3. Re:hmmm by Gabrill · · Score: 2, Funny

      So I guess you wouldn't swear on a Bilbo?

      --
      Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
    4. Re:hmmm by WeeLad · · Score: 5, Funny

      In any case, this debate will probably drag-on forever

      --
      Seriously, Don't take anything I say seriously.
  4. And who is going to direct this research? by iminplaya · · Score: 5, Funny

    Paul Verhoeven

    Kevin Smith

    George Lucas

    Allan Parker

    Steven Spielberg

    Ridley Scott

    Beorn(who?)

    or CowboyNeal?

    --
    What?
  5. Re:Get with the answers already! by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sorry, what was the question?

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  6. Re:Me being cynical by LordLucless · · Score: 3, Funny

    Come on, how boring is that -- that the meter-tall body was just an abnormal human? Wouldn't it be so much *cooler* if there were a whole race of these!

    Yeah, unfortunately science is decided based on empirical observation, not whose theory is cooler.

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  7. Re:Hobbit test by Torvaun · · Score: 2, Funny

    2. Was she wearing a ring?
    Of course not. If she was, they wouldn't have found her.
    --
    I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
  8. Biblical Confirmation by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 2, Funny

    There is line in the bible that says something like "There were midgets in the earth in those days" I am sure of it.

  9. Re:Me being cynical by hobbesmaster · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tell that to string physicists.

  10. Re:Get with the answers already! by and+ladders · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please stop posting. You are clouding a good, emotional debate with facts. Mind you, this is /. and we have no interest in facts, just emotional responses to TFA.

  11. Re:I for one... by Gabrill · · Score: 3, Funny

    dude . . . UNDERLORDS!

    --
    Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
  12. "Subterranean chamber" by The+Fun+Guy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ok, they knew as soon as they saw this subterranean chamber that it was a hobbit hole, because it wasn't a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat.

    QED.

    --
    The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
  13. Mod Parent Up by Digitus1337 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Either way, I don't think we've heard the Ent of this discussion.

    1. Re:Mod Parent Up by robophobe · · Score: 2, Funny

      The nerve! You people are so Aragont!

      --
      There was a time when movies had plots. So you knew who's ass it was, and why it was farting.
      -Not Sure
    2. Re:Mod Parent Up by nEoN+nOoDlE · · Score: 2, Funny

      Stop with the puns before I mordor someone!

      --
      Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
  14. Re:Modern human who had something wrong with her by number6x · · Score: 2, Funny

    Tom Cruise's evil twin? Or is it the other way around?