All things bright and beautiful... |
BY JAYNE ATHERTON IT MAY not rank among most people's favourite things but death
has made it into a list of nature's greatest hits. Finally there's the Grim Reaper himself.Death
allows cells to self-destruct so the body can develop and
regenerate itself.And one theory suggests an in-built
ageing programme sets an upper limit on our
lifespans, ensuring we do not outstay our welcome.
'Hobbits' ruled paradise isleBY SARAH HILLS THEY were barely 1m tall, round-faced and hollow-eyed - creatures eerily rerniniscent of Tolkien's hobbits from The Lord of The Rings. But these were not intelligent, gentle, pipe-smoking denizens of Middle Earth. They were tiny humans, who, despite having brains a quarter the size of modern man, used stone tools and hunted. Scientists who uncovered their remains, hailed it one of the most spectacular fossil finds in decades. Fragments from the primitive individuals, who lived until 12,000 years ago, were found on the Indonesian island of Flores. They inhabited a kind of tropical lost world, populated by giant lizards and miniature elephants. Radiocarbon dating revealed some specimens to be 95,000 years old. One l8,000 year-old skeleton, of an adult female, was found near stone tools and charred animal bones, suggesting she cooked. Experts believe Flores Man descended from the full-sized forebears of modern hurnans. Australian experts who found the creatures told the journal Nature they shrank over the years, in part, because they did not need to remain tall to tackle natural predators. Prof Bert Roberts, of Wollongong University, said: 'We now have the remains of at least seven hobbit-sized individuals at the cave site, so the skeleton cannot be some kind of freak.' [Metro Oct28,2005]
The Riddle of The Human Hobbits: An Equinox Special
Delving into the science behind last year's
tabloid frenzy, The Riddle of The Human Hobbits began,
in true 'ooooh- Secrecy- Lost world! Genetic conspiracy" style
with boffins stalking purposefully down shadowy, X Files-lit
corridors to click open a Spy-Catcher metal briefcase. Despite
my immense disappointment that the metal briefcase did not
reveal a tiny lost tribe of woolly-toed folk, chanting
'riddle-me-ree' and blowing smoke rings, but a small,
mouldy-looking skull from Indonesia, this mind-blowing, 'wow -
world of wonder!' doc was still hugely absorbing and great fun.
Much of the fun was due to Prof Bert Roberts, one of the
original Aussie archaeologists who unearthed Flo, the hobbit
lady whose diminutive metre-high stature and titchy brain proved
evolution-busting evidence of an entire new species. A
kind of cheery Wollongong University version of Michael Palin,
Bert was happy to give us facts in a way we understood,
clarifying the importance of the find while proving his
professionalism by the ability to say 'homo erectus' repeatedly
without giggling like a schoolboy.
Until very recently, evolutionary thought was couched in terms of a linear, progressive trajectory rising from lower life forms and culminating in man. I have argued elsewhere that this view is not, regrettably, as extinct as it should be. In palaeoanthropology, this idea is seen in the view that only one species of hominid has existed at any one time, each one succeeding the next in a scheme of orderly replacement. This idea began to crumble in the 1970s, since when discoveries of ancient relatives of humans have revealed a marked diversity of form. Human evolution is like a bush, not a ladder. But these discoveries concerned the more remote reaches of human ancestry. Despite the fact that some of our relatives, such as Neanderthal man and Homo erectus, are thought to have become extinct in relatively recent times, our complacency that this view holds for recent history has not been shaken. Until now. If it turns out that the diversity of human beings was always high, remained high until very recently and might not be entirely extinguished, we are entitled to question the security of some of our deepest beliefs. Will the real image of God please stand up? |
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