Review: Alien From Earth 11-11-08

This was a pretty interesting and entertaining special on the Hobbits of the island of Flores. Some notes:

Ebu Gogo, the Grandmother who eats anything.

First evidence came to light in the 1990'S, a tem of Dutch and Indonesian scientists.

Chris Stringer

Mike Morwood, archaeologist, examined ancient tools found by the Dutch and Indonesian teams. Tools that ancient should not exist on Flores.

A natural wall would keep animals and humans from getting to the island.

Liang Bua (cold cave) was a limestone cave where Morwood and his team searched for more evidence of the ancient toolmakers.

Bert Roberts of the University of Wollongong

A tiny arm bone was discovered 20 feet down in the cave.

Another year of digging yielded a possibly human tooth.

A prehuman skeleton was also found, suggesting a female child which turned out to be a miniature adult.

The skeleton was labeled LB1.

Fragments of others, 12 in all, were found. Pygmy elephant bones were also found.

Expert in paleoanthropology Peter Brown examined these remains and was taken aback.

The Homo Floresiensis has a smaller brain than a chimpanzee, and certainly smaller than modern humans.

Carbon dating was done on the remains (actually luminiscence dating) to determine that they were less than 30,000 years old.

Radiocarbon dating was also used, via Chris Turney, an expert in the field. This was done in an effort to give an absolute approximate date-10,000-12,000 years old!!!

There is a possibility of the hobbits being related to Hominins.

Ralph Holloway of Columbia University is skeptical of the Hobbits being a new species.

Tekeu Jacob asked to examine the hobbit, basically taking it away from the scientists.

He determined that it was most likely a modern human pygmy.

He eventually returned the bones, but the excavations at Liang Bua were suspended.

The skeptics offered that the small brain was the result of pathology which retards the growth of the brain (microcephaly).

Anthropologist Dean Falk is examining the Hobbit's and the skull of an individual who had the pathology to compare to see if indeed the disease could apply to the hobbits. The two brains are found to be completely different.

Paleoanthropologist Bill Jungers examined the skeleton to see if the pathology might affect the skeleton.

James Phillips of the Field Museum of Natural History also discusses the brain being the important element.

Mark Moore has examined the tools found in the cave, and is skeptical that they were the ones who made the stone tools.

The Controversy Continues. More on this special can be found Here.