Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders

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ChatteParfaitt -> Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 3:55:44 AM)
Another interesting anthropology article from the NY Times: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorder

ARIES83 -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 5:04:37 AM)
Cool

ChatteParfaitt -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 6:32:23 AM)
Yeah. I can't wait until they find more skulls and body parts. That should tell them so much more. And for Himself, it's official, I may be 'hobbit sized' but I am NOT a moron. So there !

MasterCaneman -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 6:58:58 AM)
Well, at least we know where Middle Earth was. Do be careful if a tall old dude in a dressing gown knocks on your door, though. Baaaad things can happen.

ARIES83 -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 6:59:07 AM)
I wonder if there is evidance of big cats or the like on that island... If so, that would have been a hard life for micro pygmies... Not to mention Komodo Dragons!

Hillwilliam -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 8:23:57 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: ARIES83 I wonder if there is evidance of big cats or the like on that island... If so, that would have been a hard life for micro pygmies... Not to mention Komodo Dragons! Komodo Dragons, pffffffft When the aboriginals first started populating Australia, there was a critter by the moniker of Megalania priscia that reached lenths near 30 feet that already inhabited the area.

ARIES83 -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 8:41:47 AM)
That's a big lizard! It looks like the micro pygmies didn't fair as well as the aboriginals though...

DomKen -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:00:38 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: ARIES83 I wonder if there is evidance of big cats or the like on that island... If so, that would have been a hard life for micro pygmies... Not to mention Komodo Dragons! No big felines but there were Komodo Dragons and pygmy elephants.

outlier -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:02:40 AM)
Interesting, thanks for posting it.

DomKen -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:03:23 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Hillwilliam quote: ORIGINAL: ARIES83 I wonder if there is evidance of big cats or the like on that island... If so, that would have been a hard life for micro pygmies... Not to mention Komodo Dragons! Komodo Dragons, pffffffft When the aboriginals first started populating Australia, there was a critter by the moniker of Megalania priscia that reached lenths near 30 feet that already inhabited the area. Got to wonder about the folks who first got there and said something like "there are giant lizards and everything is poisonous let's settle down"

Hillwilliam -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:09:16 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DomKen quote: ORIGINAL: Hillwilliam quote: ORIGINAL: ARIES83 I wonder if there is evidance of big cats or the like on that island... If so, that would have been a hard life for micro pygmies... Not to mention Komodo Dragons! Komodo Dragons, pffffffft When the aboriginals first started populating Australia, there was a critter by the moniker of Megalania priscia that reached lenths near 30 feet that already inhabited the area. Got to wonder about the folks who first got there and said something like "there are giant lizards and everything is poisonous let's settle down" Tough bastards is all I can say. We haven't even talked about the giant flesh eating kangaroos.

MasterCaneman -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:09:59 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: DomKen quote: ORIGINAL: Hillwilliam quote: ORIGINAL: ARIES83 I wonder if there is evidance of big cats or the like on that island... If so, that would have been a hard life for micro pygmies... Not to mention Komodo Dragons! Komodo Dragons, pffffffft When the aboriginals first started populating Australia, there was a critter by the moniker of Megalania priscia that reached lenths near 30 feet that already inhabited the area. Got to wonder about the folks who first got there and said something like "there are giant lizards and everything is poisonous let's settle down" Probably because the option was to go back across open ocean in a dugout canoe. Gotta give credit to our ancestors, they didn't discourage easily. They're probably one of the causes of its extinction in the first place. Go modern humans!

ChatteParfaitt -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:16:25 AM)
FR: One of my reading interests is how humans colonized the planet. And no, humans don't discourage easily. The country we now consider the US was colonized in a few thousand years, and during an ice age. Which meant they came to a new land, either by canoe or through Alaska and down Canada and managed to propagate so fast they needed to acquire new territory. That means learning a new climate, new plants and animals, the whole survival deal, during an ice age, when things were undergoing drastic change anyway. Humans have the most remarkable ability to adapt to damn near anything.

ARIES83 -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:16:30 AM)
quote: Got to wonder about the folks who first got there and said something like "there are giant lizards and everything is poisonous let's settle down" They obviously had extreamly large testicles. But yer, I knew about the pygmy elephants, I wonder what the common evolutionary mechanism/ environmental pressure was that favoured 'shrinking' in that environment... With the elephant I was thinking jungle was an obvious one, with the smaller ones being able to forage where the bigger ones couldnt go... But what shrinks a person... [:-]

ChatteParfaitt -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:28:23 AM)
That is a hard question to answer I would think. Environment plays such an important part in evolution. Did the environment change so that the animal's food source was lower to the ground? Maybe a drought that caused the plants to become stunted? This is my guess. The whole question of why things are the size they are is one I find quite fascinating.

MasterCaneman -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:29:31 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: ARIES83 quote: Got to wonder about the folks who first got there and said something like "there are giant lizards and everything is poisonous let's settle down" They obviously had extreamly large testicles. But yer, I knew about the pygmy elephants, I wonder what the common evolutionary mechanism/ environmental pressure was that favoured 'shrinking' in that environment... With the elephant I was thinking jungle was an obvious one, with the smaller ones being able to forage where the bigger ones couldnt go... But what shrinks a person... [:-] It's called Insular Dwarfism, and apologies for it being a Wiki article, but from what I can see, it's more solid than one dealing with, say, Justin Bieber. I remember reading some of the referenced articles years ago.

ChatteParfaitt -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:37:36 AM)
It's a good article, I'm reading it now. TY

ARIES83 -> RE: Hobbit Size Not Linked to Growth Disorders (7/17/2013 10:44:08 AM)
Very interesting article.

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