New research: Hobbit was a modern human suffering from iodine deficiency

Did Frodo and Sam suffer from iodine deficiency?



Joel Kontinen


The debate on the status of the Hobbits or Flores Men has been quite lively in the past few years. (You can read more here, here and here.) According to fresh research, the Hobbit was not a distinct human species but a true H. sapiens suffering from iodine deficiency.

Found on the Indonesian island of Flores, the diminutive Hobbits were named after the heroes of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth story.

Recently, Charles Oxnard, an emeritus professor at the University of Western Australia, and colleagues published a paper in PloS ONE, comparing the bones of humans suffering from cretinism, chimpanzees and healthy humans to those of Hobbits or Homo floresiensis. The study suggests that Hobbits were H. sapiens whose small size probably resulted from cretinism caused by iodine deficiency.

In 2008 Professor Oxnard and colleagues examined the Hobbit skull. According to ScienceDaily they found out that it ”showed evidence of endemic dwarf cretinism resulting from congenital hypothyroidism and were [sic] not a new species of human.”

More recently, Oxnard and his colleagues tested their theory by examining the post-cranial skeleton of Hobbits. The study supported their view.

Earlier last month another research team also found evidence for the theory that Hobbits are fully human.

Robert Eckhardt, professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology at Pennsylvania State University, and Maciej Henneberg, professor of anthropological and comparative anatomy at the University of Adelaide, examined the skull of the Hobbit known as LB1 that was found in the Liang Buan cave on Flores and published their findings in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Professor Eckhardt criticises the approach of some researchers who have classified the Hobbit as a distinct species on the basis of a single asymmetrical skull instead of seeing it as a deformed H. sapiens skull.

Eckhardt adds that although LB1’s braincase was badly asymmetric, this does not make Hobbit into a species distinct from H. sapiens.

According to professor Eckhardt, there still are people on the island of Flores who resemble Hobbits. The jaw and teeth of present-day Floresians hardly differ from those of Hobbits although they have a bigger and more symmetric skull.

Commenting on his research, professor Oxnard says: "Cretinism is caused by various environmental factors including iodine deficiency -- a deficiency which would have been present on Flores at the period to which the dwarfed Flores fossils are dated."

Professor Oxnard points out that cretinism is still quite common in Indonesia, including the island of Bali that is not far from Flores.

Seen from the creation perspective, the research results of these two Hobbit studies were expected. All people are the descendants of Adam. As the apostle Paul said, ”The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth … From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth.” (Acts 17:24, 26).

Sources:

Researchers offer alternate theory for found skull's asymmetry. PhysOrg.com .(6 September 2010).

'Hobbit' Was an Iodine-Deficient Human, Not Another Species, New Study Suggests. ScienceDaily. (28 September. 2010).

Scientific American: humans are still evolving

Evolutionists do not agree on whether humans are still evolving. Image courtesy of José-Manuel Benito Álvarez, Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

At times, there are interesting twists and turns in the discussion on evolution. Two years ago Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London, announced that human evolution was over.

Recently, however, Scientific American published an article that suggests that professor Jones might have been a bit hasty with his pronouncement. Just ask the Tibetans who have continued their evolution by adapting to living at a high altitude.

Tibetans have not ceased to be H. sapiens. According to the article they have managed to overcome altitude sickness and other problems resulting from a low level of oxygen with the help of evolution.

Scientific American might have forgotten to tell its readers that the changes wrought in the Tibetans do not have anything to do with Darwinian evolution but they reveal that humans were designed to adapt to various climates and circumstances.

This ability speaks of very intelligent design.

Source:

Pritchard, Jonathan K. 2010. How We Are Evolving. Scientific American (22 September) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-we-are-evolving&sc=WR_20100928.

Gliese 581g is an Earth-like exoplanet – or perhaps not

In 2007 Gliese 581c, the sister planet of the new ”Goldilocks planet” caused a disappointment to those who were hoping to find life in outer space. Image courtesy of ESO.




Joel Kontinen

The discovery of a potentially habitable planet has made lively headlines in the popular media. It might be good to remember that the sister planet of 581g caused a considerable amount of excitement in 2007. Later, however, researchers found out that the planet named Gliese 581c was probably as warm as Venus.

Steve Vogt of the University of California Santa Cruz, who was a member of the research group that discovered Gliese 581g, says, ”Our findings offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet." He was quoted as saying that he is 100 per cent sure of ”the chances of life” on the planet.

Gliese 581g orbits a red dwarf twenty light years from Earth. Red dwarfs are known to be unstable and Gliese 581g orbits it closer than Mercury our sun.

It is a world of extremes. One side of the tidally locked planet faces the sun perpetually, while the other is in darkness. The planet has a mass of 3 – 4 Earths and its temperature is expected to range from around + 71 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Fahrenheit) on the sunny side to -34 degrees Celsius ( - 29 degrees Fahrenheit) on the dark side. The habitable zone is assumed to lie in between these two extreme areas.

Jay Richards, who co-authored the book The Privileged Planet with Guillermo Gonzalez, takes a critical approach to this claim:

”The planet in question is tidally locked, so the same face perpetually faces its star. So it won't have a pleasing climate. It's about three times more massive than Earth, and it's quite close to its star, which is an M dwarf. Such stars are probably not good hosts for habitable planets due to their high activity levels…

Venus and Mars are much more Earth-like that this or any other extrasolar planet we've yet been able to detect. For instance, they're around a star known to host a habitable planet, and they're both quite close in orbit to that habitable planet. And yet, neither is home to life of any sort.”

While Gliese 581g might orbit its sun within the Goldilocks or habitable zone, this does not necessarily mean that the planet is habitable. Plate tectonics and a big moon would also be necessary for life. Doctor Don DeYoung has shown that if the Earth did not have a sizeable Moon, there would be no tides, the oceans would be stagnant and marine life would die.

Recently, New Scientist disclosed that the birth of the Moon was one of the ”ten accidents that made us”.

According to Genesis, the Moon is not the result of a lucky accident but of a definite act of creation. In contrast, we do not know whether Gliese 581g has any kind of moon, so the joy of Vogt and colleagues might be a bit premature.

Sources:

Alleyne, Richard. 2010. Gliese 581g: the most Earth like planet yet discovered. Telegraph. co. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8033124/Gliese-581g-the-most-Earth-like-planet-yet-discovered.html. (29 September)

DeYoung, Don. 2006. Our Created Moon. Answers in Genesis DVD.

Richards, Jay. 2010. Science Reporters Should Quit Crying "Life!" http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/09/science_reporters_should_quit_038781.html#more (30 September).

Moses and a strong wind: a new explanation of the Red Sea crossing

Moses by Jusepe de Ribero in 1638. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Climate scientist Carl Drews and colleagues recently published a paper in PLoS ONE, discussing how the Israelites under Moses could have crossed the Red Sea without getting their feet wet.

Exodus is an intriguing description of what God can do. Drews and colleagues tried to find a naturalistic explanation of how the Israelites, who had been enslaved by the Egyptians, were able to reach safety.

Exodus describes the method Jahweh used as follows:

”Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”

Drews used computer simulations to find out how the waters could have parted. He concluded that if a powerful east wind blowing at slightly over 100 kilometres (over 60 miles) per hour blew for twelve hours, it could push the waters back so that Israel would be able to cross the sea.

Drews brings up the report of a British general who in 1882 witnessed a powerful easterly wind that pushed the waters apart. According to Drews, it could have opened a land bridge for a few hours.

Commenting on the study in USA Today, Ken Ham, the CEO of Answers in Genesis, says: ”The parting of the Red Sea was a miracle. It was an extraordinary act of God. Yet, God used a force of nature — wind — to bring about this miracle. But there is no need to come up with a naturalistic explanation of a supernatural event."

In any case, God rules over nature. He could freely choose how He would lead His people to freedom. The Book of Isaiah, for instance, states:

” 'I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel's Creator, your King.' This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: 'Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!' ” (Isaiah 43: 15-19).

It is good to remember that God not only did great deeds in the past but that He also works in our time.

Source:

Rice, Doyle. 2010. Study seeks to explain the parting of the Red Sea. USA Today (20 September).

Neandertals were cleverer and more innovative than we thought

Reconstruction of a Neandertal girl. Image courtesy of Christopher P.E. Zollikofer, Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich.



Joel Kontinen

Neandertals were innovative and developed their own culture, a new study conducted at the University of Colorado -Denver discloses. Researchers had previously assumed that Neandertals were primitive cave men who at best only copied the achievements of modern man.

Julien Riel-Salvatore, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado –Denver, has discovered that this view is completely erroneous.

Riel-Salvatore studied Neandertal sites in Italy for seven years and found signs of advanced culture that up to now had only been associated with modern man. According to ScienceDaily, ”Riel-Salvatore identified projectile points, ochre, bone tools, ornaments and possible evidence of fishing and small game hunting at Uluzzian archeological sites throughout southern Italy.”

Riel-Salvatore’s research will be published in the December issue of the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. ”We are more brothers than distant cousins," he says of the relationship of Neanderthals and modern humans.

At the time of the famous Scopes money trial in 1925, the best evidence for Darwinian evolution included Neandertals, Nebraska man and Piltdown man.

Now we know that the lone tooth of Nebraska man belonged to an extinct pig-like creature, that Piltdown man was a forgery and that Neandertals were fully human, just like us.

Source:

Neanderthals More Advanced Than Previously Thought: They Innovated, Adapted Like Modern Humans, Research Shows. ScienceDaily (22 September 2010).

Alleged: New film on the 1925 Scopes ”monkey trial”

Joel Kontinen

Inherit the Wind (1960), the Hollywood version of the 1925 Scopes ”monkey trial”, succeeded in mixing up almost all details related to the historical court drama. It attempted to describe the debate between evolution and creation as a struggle of science against outdated religious views.

Inherit the Wind misrepresented the trial egregiously. Alleged, a new, soon to be released film, takes a more realistic approach to the case. Although it also includes a fictional romantic dimension, Alleged describes the story as it really happened without re-interpreting it from a Darwinian perspective.

Alleged is directed by Tommy Hines and written by Fred Foote. William Jennings Bryan (Fred Thompson) takes on John Scopes’ attorney Clarence Darrow (Brian Dennehy) in a memorable court drama.

Alleged for instance suggests that the case for Nebraska man, based on a single tooth, is flimsy, like everything else that in 1925 was used as evidence for Darwinian evolution.

You can read more about the background of the Scopes trial here.


Source:

Mostafavi, Beata. 2010. Trailer of 'Alleged' film gives sneak peek into movie about Scopes Monkey Trial; includes local cameo and scenes from Crossroads Village. Flint Journal (13 August).

Toy car in ”ancient” rock

Joel Kontinen

Most people assume that it takes millions of years to form rocks. However, a small rock found near Brisbane, Australia, contained a toy car. In other words, it could not be much older than ten years or so, as Dr. Tas Walker explains in this brief video clip: