Scientific evidence that Hobbit's may have lived in Eurasia!

[El Mahdi]

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[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Then it's true!

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I doubt these Eurasian fossils will be exactly the same species as the hobbits, though they could be on the same branch of the family tree.

There were lots of hominids kicking around at the same time for a while.

Also, there's solid evidence now of interbreeding between modern humans and neanderthals, so antiquated versions of the species concept probably need to go out the window. The only question I have is whether a full million years would be enough to make interbreeding impossible, or do these guys end up interbreeding with us as well.

 

[El Mahdi]

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[Raven Crowking]

Perhaps Robert E. Howard was telling the truth, and they are the Worms in the Earth.

 

[coyote6]

I dunno, does it prove Tolkien right, or just prove that Kara Thrace, Lee Adama, Bill Adama, Saul Tigh, & co were all much shorter than they looked on TV?

 

[Desdichado]

Also, there's solid evidence now of interbreeding between modern humans and neanderthals, so antiquated versions of the species concept probably need to go out the window. The only question I have is whether a full million years would be enough to make interbreeding impossible, or do these guys end up interbreeding with us as well.

Last I heard, the mtDNA evidence was against that hypothesis, actually. Is there something in the last year or two that got published I don't know about?

Even without Eurasian "hobbits" linked in the above post, there's plenty of overlap between various species of Homo in the world. floriensis, neanderthalensis, erectus and rhodesiensis all overlapped with Homo sapiens sapiens at one point or another.

I've given some thought to using that as a hook; a kind of archeology/fantasy hybrid. But frankly, I decided that using conventional fantasy races like dwarves, elves, etc. kinda defeated the purpose. It dilutes the idea of basing the campaign around an archeological premise.

 

[JohnSnow]

Honestly, I think the archaeological evidence just makes fantasy worlds much more plausible for the first time. The idea of humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, goblinoids and orcs coexisting in a fantasy setting is now no longer far-fetched, as a situation not too far removed from that (multiple sentient species coexisting) actually happened in the "real world."

I can't help but be reminded of Special Unit: 2 and its characterization of the "Links" as forgotten/distant members of the human evolutionary tree. It also raises the intriguing possibility of sasquatches not being complete fiction. Although it's entirely possible they no longer exist.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Last I heard, the mtDNA evidence was against that hypothesis, actually. Is there something in the last year or two that got published I don't know about?

Couple of skulls in Europe with jaws and teeth that have a very intermediate sort of structure, from around the time modern humans moved into the area, and associated with known sites. Jury is still out on them. But knowing humans and breeding... if we have 2 fossils.... there were probably about 10,000 times that many.

I'm a firm believer that there was interbreeding in any case. After all, Neanderthals only split off from us less than 500,000 years ago at most, and one constant of the universe is that if a male hominid can successfully sleep with something, he will do so.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Of course, the humans of Medieval Europe won't see any of these races as "people", but as fantastic creatures of myth, legend, and nightmares.

You could also do it the other way.

Agatharchides of Cnidus, an ancient Greek author and geographer, writes of a tribe of people past the Horn of Africa called Fiber-Eaters. The Fiber-Eaters foraged in the trees, never wore clothes, and had incredible agility.

The Fiber-Eaters were in fact chimpanzees.

If chimpanzees could be seen as a tribe of humans, what does that say about hobbits and Neanderthals?