Evolutionist propaganda regarding the remains of Homo floresiensis has come up with a new explanation in the face of the latest research. The view that the skeleton in question, announced in 2004 as the “the anthropological discovery of the century” and added to the human family tree as a new species, is not in fact a separate species but a diseased form of Homo sapiens was initially raised among the research community.
Researchers from the School of Applied Sciences at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, have revealed however that the Homo floresiensis individual in question, one metre in height and with a brain the size of that of chimpanzee, may well be a human being suffering from the condition known as “cretinism.” (Cretinism; a disease that significantly impedes physical and mental development due to the absence from birth of thyroid hormones.)
The Homo floresiensis bones were found in the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. The first discoveries belonged to 8 individuals (this figure was later raised to 12), and only one of the individuals, thought to be a woman aged around 30, had a receding forehead. This skeleton, given the name LB1, exhibited characteristics different to those of “normal” Homo sapiens with its miniature anatomy and in its jaw and wrist structures. Evolutionists deliberately distorted these ape-like features, describing the remains as a species distinct from Homo sapiens in so-called human evolution. However, the idea of a “separate species” did not go unchallenged, and despite being mainly evolutionists themselves many palaeontologists and anatomists revealed evidence proving that this interpretation was inaccurate and that Homo floresiensis was actually a Homo sapiens race. (See, Another blow to evolutionist claims regarding ""Homo floresiensis"": Similar miniature remains have been described as Homo sapiens and Towards An End To The Flores Man Deception)
This study, the details of which were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, used multivariant statistical analysis to compare data from the hobbit skull and other bones collected by earlier researchers with human beings suffering from dwarfism and cretinism.
At the end of their research the scientists concluded that there was no need to describe the Flores remains as a separate species, that they lived among a normal Homo sapiens population and may well have belonged to individuals suffering from a condition such as cretinism that impedes normal development. The researchers state that such dwarf cretin characteristics also appear in the hobbit fossil. Iodine deficiency and a combination of other factors can damage an infant’s thyroid while it is still in its mother’s womb and result in seriously retarded bone development and a shrunken brain size. Scientists point to poor nutrition on the part of the pregnant mother as causing the disease.
Peter Obendorf, one of the researchers and an expert on “health and nutrition down the ages,” employed the following terms in a statement to the Reuters press agency:
We believe they were homo sapiens but with this disorder. The mothers would be iodine and selenium deficient and would be exposed to certain plant food that would release cyanide into the body. . . We think the population was normal, but many of the women had goiter. In the middle of a drought, some were forced to eat unsuitable food ... and they had cretin children.
Obendorf rejects the distinct species claim in the words, “Compared to the other theory, that it"s [the hobbit is] a new species, it really does look a better explanation."
The researchers also noted that: “Certain structures of the fossils, such as the arm bone, matched descriptions contained in medical literature of cretin skeletons found in Europe, especially Germany and Switzerland.” “The dwarf cretins in Europe have just the same structural rotation of the arm bone.”, says Obendorf.
Another of the researchers, the University of Western Australia anatomist Charles Oxnard, says that the bones may belong to a human being suffering from cretinism leading to dwarfism. “Such evidence as we"ve been able to gather implies there"s at least the possibility that it might be a cretin of a normal human population," says Oxnard.
Oxnard initially lined up alongside those who maintained that the Flores skeleton should be regarded as a distinct species. In contrast to more dogmatic thinkers, however, he admitted the possibility that he might be mistaken and engaged in an exchange of ideas with scientists holding opposing views. Since Obendorf and Ben J. Kefford, another of the joint authors of the paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, were not classically trained palaeoanthropologists they provided Oxnard with a different perspective regarding the hobbit. Espousing the cretinism hypothesis the scientists convinced him with various pieces of evidence. Oxnard no longer believes that Homo floresiensis is a separate species and took his place as the third author of the paper, alongside Obendorf and Kefford.
In their paper, in addition to the similarities between the Homo floresiensis skull, teeth and wrist and those of victims of cretinism, the researchers also offer a suggestion as to how the remains might have ended up in the cave. The note the presence of characters reminiscent of Flores Man in the tales handed down by the local population down the ages.
The scientists think that the hobbit is probably the child of a group of hunter gatherers in the interior region of Flores. Obendorf hypothesises that, “As a child the hobbit would have been well cared for but would have been forced to become more independent as it aged.” The child may eventually have left the group and sought shelter in the cave, living an isolated life there. According to the scientists, the presence of the bones in the cave indicate death before burial, in contrast to members of the normal population.
In addition, remains recently discovered in Timor, near to Flores, also constitute evidence against the claim that Flores Man is a separate species. It has been established that people with an anatomy identical to that of modern human beings were living on Timor some 42,000 years ago. This is interpreted as another indication that a supposedly primitive species distinct from Homo sapiens could have existed in isolation on Flores for thousands of years.
In a statement, Charles Oxnard emphasises the error involved in bringing an evolutionary account to bear on Homo floresiensis:
Almost all the people who have looked at these fossils have been coming from an evolutionary perspective. Our idea is that this was an environmentally caused problem.
As we have seen, evolutionist claims regarding Flores Man that have found wide scope in the media are actually based on a preconception that ignores the true scientific facts. The abnormalities in the Homo floresiensis anatomy are ignored by evolutionists, even though they equate to those in diseased members of Homo sapiens, who conceal this from the public and seek to add the former as a new member of the human family tree by imposing their own biased perspective on the concrete evidence available. In this way, they are trying to spread the false propaganda that scientific evidence has been provided for Darwinism.
This latest study once again shows that evolutionists who distort palaeoanthropological remains, which are inadequate in numbers and open to a range of interpretations, in favour of their own theories have once again been confronted by the emergence, sooner or later, of the true facts. The human beings who have lived on Earth are not entities formed by unconscious natural processes and chance, accompanied by an animal-like struggle for survival, and were in fact brought into being by Almighty God breathing His spirit into them and commanding them to BE, and are maintained under His mercy at all times. Modern science confirms this truth by revealing how the systems in the human body have been built to an astonishing level of sensitivity and proving the invalidity of the fantasies produced by evolutionists on behalf of materialist philosophy.
Almighty God reveals His creation of man thus in the Qur’an:
Mankind! if you are in any doubt about the Rising, know that We created you from dust then from a drop of sperm then from a clot of blood then from a lump of flesh, formed yet unformed, so We may make things clear to you. We make whatever We want stay in the womb until a specified time and then We bring you out as children so that you can reach your full maturity. Some of you die and some of you revert to the lowest form of life so that, after having knowledge, they then know nothing at all. And you see the earth dead and barren; then when We send down water onto it, it quivers and swells and sprouts with luxuriant plants of every kind. (Sura al-Hajj, 5)
Peter J. Obendorf, Charles E. Oxnard, Ben J. Kefford, Are the small human-like fossils found on Flores human endemic cretins?, Online Date, Tuesday, 04 March 2008, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/jl77276376781n87
New twist in Hobbit-human debate, 5 March 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7276943.stm
Lester Haines, Flores Hobbits were stunted humans, 5 March 2008, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/05/new_hobbit_theory/
Narelle Towie, UWA academic claims hobbits not a new species, 5 March 2008, http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23322890-2761,00.html
Elizabeth Culotta, Were the Flores Hobbits Really Cretins?, 5 March 2008, ScienceNOW Daily News, http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/305/3 fossils could be dwarf finding: researchers, 5 March, 2008,
Anna Salleh, Is the hobbit just a dwarf cretin?, 5 March, 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/03/05/2181122.htm?site=science&topic=latest
Chee Chee Leung, Science Reporter, Dwarf cretins claim sparks "hobbit" row, 5 March, 2008, http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/dwarf-cretins-claim-sparks-hobbit-row/2008/03/05/1204402518342.html
Fresh ruckus over those pesky Hobbits, 5 March, 2008, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23323915-30417,00.html
Deborah Smith, Dwarf cretins or new human species: two academic tribes go to war, 5 March, 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/they-were-just-dwarf-cretins-claims-new-report/2008/03/05/1204402511772.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
"Hobbit" hominids were dwarf cretins, say scientists, 6 March, 2008, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hMpKCgIo3lGrSNc2Yof8kfS_BKcA