On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 21:36, Thomas Bridgeland wrote:

>On Thursday, October 28, 2004, at 08:41 PM,
>Persephone O'Donnell wrote:
>
>> The remains discovered have been dated as old
>> as 95,000 years and as young
>> as 13,000 years ago,
>
>Aww S**T! Another one we just missed seeing. Mastodons in
>the new world survived until just a few hundred years
>before the European invasion. Lots of great animals,
>and now another species of HUMANS that died just
>a few years too early for us. That just makes me so sad.

Well, Tom, you and I - being gardeners - can do something to preserve some
biodiversity by growing heritage varieties.  I have planted this summer
tomatoes which are purported to be straight from S America with tiny,
berry-sized fruits.  I'm for ever on the lookout for foods I can grow
which are as close as possible to their Pleistocene state.

We can't bring back Homo floresiensis, but we can preserve other, less
spectacular species.

Incidentally (and I'm getting off topic here), did you read that the bones
were not fossilized, but were like 'wet blotting paper'.  The Australian
archaeologists who led the dig were not at the site at the time of the
discovery, so the Indonesian discoverers and their professional skill in
regognizing and preserving the skeletons deserve credit.

Keith