IN A HOLE IN THE GROUND THERE LIVED A HOBBIT
Scientists discover a tool-using, perhaps culture creating, prehistoric dwarf race on the human family tree, which appears to be more complex than previously imagined.
Since the dwarfism of this Homo Erectus -like proto-human who probably coexisted for thousands of years with modern Homo Sapiens is being explained by hypothetical localized evolutionary pressures, that begs the question if scientists will one day make a discovery on the other end of the size spectrum. Perhaps we will find that there were once ” giants ” who walked the earth.
Andrew:
October 28th, 2004 at 6:32 pm
The evolutionary pressures that selected for dwarfism were able to fuction becuase of the speices’ isolation. There were no predators, food was not abunant, thus genetically smaller organisms were selected for (the term used in anthropology circles is isolation dwarfism). I reccommend this article on the current situation in North Korea as an iteresting anthropological comparison, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001857855_korea14.html. While generations would have have to face the current evolutionary pressures, there are some environmental similarities.