Durin the Deathless thus became King Durin I of Khazad-dûm and ruled for many years until he was named "Durin the Deathless" until he died during the First Age. Afterwards, other rulers of Khazad-dûm were sometimes named Durin, as they were considered to be his reincarnations, who the dwarves believed came to live again among his people.
The monster - a Balrog of Morgoth, as was later known - lurked alone in Moria for nearly five hundred years. After that time, the old city of Khazad-dûm began to be peopled again, but not by Dwarves. Orcs from the North began to enter the abandoned city to raid its treasuries, and occupy it. They also began to worship the Balrog as their deity. Soon afterwards, Sauron directed his creatures there, and Moria began to fill with Orcs and Trolls from Mordor.
Fossils of Homo floresiensis -- dubbed "the hobbits" due to their tiny stature -- were discovered on the island of Flores in 2003.
Controversy has raged ever since as to whether they are an unknown branch of early humans or specimens of modern man deformed by disease.
The new study, based on an analysis of the skull bones, shows once and for all that the pint-sized people were not Homo sapiens, according to the researchers.
Until now, academic studies have pointing in one direction or another -- and scientific discourse has sometimes tipped over into acrimony.
One school of thought holds that so-called Flores Man descended from the larger Homo erectus and became smaller over hundreds of generations.
The proposed process for this is called "insular dwarfing" -- animals, after migrating across land bridges during periods of low sea level, wind up marooned on islands as oceans rise and their size progressively diminishes if the supply of food declines.
An adult hobbit stood a metre (three feet) tall, and weighed about 25 kilos (55 pounds).
Similarly, Flores Island was also home to a miniature race of extinct, elephant-like creatures called Stegodon.
But other researchers argue that H. floresiensis was in fact a modern human whose tiny size and small brain -- no bigger than a grapefruit -- was caused by a genetic disorder.
One suspect was dwarf cretinism, sometimes brought on by a lack of iodine. Another potential culprit was microcephaly, which shrivels not just the brain and its boney envelope.
Comments
- it is a rethorykal question
Really? Really?
What about "I need to sleep" or "I really have to go pee"?
Elementary, Watson. ;)
What's that about?
Sorry. Not doing so hot and I know it's part of the human condition but honestly, kid.
It's bad.