March 12, 2008
The Flores Hobbit: Cretins?
I don’t think so.
You might have heard the lastest on the Flores hobbit story; that some Australian researchers are claiming they were actually modern humans suffering from cretinism (myxoedematous endemic cretinism, to be precise). The researchers include iodine deficiency as a cause of the cretinism.
Iodine deficiency is usually caused by a lack of seafood (in the days before idodized salt, of course), but remember the skeletons were found only 15 miles from the ocean shore. So my first thought was… when has 15 miles ever been much of a barrier to stone age hunters and gatherers? This just doesn’t add up.
An article on Scientific American shows most scientists don’t agree with this interpretation, and it is pointed out that the researchers didn’t even read the data correctly:
Scientific American: Hobbit Watch:
Experts slam the cretin hypothesis
