Comments on: Homo floresiensis Supporter’s Challenge

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 08:39:57 +0000

there have been many reports of great discoveries that later became known as false. I believe there are 2 main reasons for this: 1)the person believes they will be the one to prove something, and is willing to lie to do it 2)in need of funding, but there’s no $ without something to study

By: twblack

twblack — Tue, 30 May 2006 22:32:57 +0000

Loren please keep us updated on this subject. Thanks Todd!!!

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Thu, 25 May 2006 23:28:46 +0000

Chymo: As noted in the referenced posting (link above), the Indonesian government has closed all excavations that might reveal further examples of Homo floresiensis. Considering Dr. Jacob has great influence in paleoanthropological policy in Indonesia, this seems more a politically-motived rather than scientific-based decision.

By: Chymo

Chymo — Thu, 25 May 2006 23:17:37 +0000

Peter Brown should find another skull. Stat.

By: lamarkable

lamarkable — Thu, 25 May 2006 22:49:12 +0000

Another volley. Nice serve. I am going to step out and get some popcorn..maybe a large soda..Ive got tickets for that Bigfoot movie…whoa..that one hit the net..

By: fredfacker

fredfacker — Thu, 25 May 2006 22:24:57 +0000

I guess everyone’s got a skeleton in their closet.

By: Tabitca

Tabitca — Thu, 25 May 2006 20:23:58 +0000

wasn’t there recently a scientist taken to court over lying about cloning experiments? It happens all the time.
It’s quite cut throat in the world of academia. People will do anything to stop their theories being challenged .

By: jayman

jayman — Thu, 25 May 2006 19:52:47 +0000

The idea that the H. floresiensis specimens are microcephalic is preposterous. Microcephaly only stunts the braincase, not the entire head. The large round eye sockets and other features are also unlike sapiens.

By: Dan Gannon

Dan Gannon — Thu, 25 May 2006 19:28:13 +0000

I was not aware, or perhaps had forgotten, that Teuku Jacob was sitting on such specimens. Considering his vigorous participation (and one might even say, instigation,) in this controversy, such secrecy would appear to be intellectually dishonest, unethical, and scientifically indefensible. Show us what you have, Teuku.

By: greatanarch

greatanarch — Thu, 25 May 2006 19:22:59 +0000

This is from a review in a recent Nature of “The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors” by Ann Gibbons:
“But to complicate matters further, palaeoanthropology is often seen as a sort of zero-sum game, with the result that published specimens are often vigorously defended from the eyes of rival scientists, making it impossible to test the published assertions. What other branch of science keeps its primary data secret?”
If things have really reached this state in palaeoanthropology, it is not easy to see how they can assert it to be a science but deny the status to cryptozoology.