Hobbit Species found...

[Woodlouse2002]

Maybe it was ignorance that caused us to miss this one. But I was really responding to Pippins comment about it being amazing that there was another spiecies of human around.

And on the Giant squid thing, maybe we have been catching babies for years. But howcome no one has ever trawled up a fully grown adult? Mysteries mysteries...

[Chris_F]

Maybe it was ignorance that caused us to miss this one. But I was really responding to Pippins comment about it being amazing that there was another spiecies of human around.

And on the Giant squid thing, maybe we have been catching babies for years. But howcome no one has ever trawled up a fully grown adult? Mysteries mysteries...

I'm not so much suprised that there's another homo-something.  There're plenty of them.  But this is the first recorded case of homo-something which lived so recently.  Most homo-something non homo-sapiens died out maybe 50-80 thousand years ago.  This homo-something died out only 12-18 thousand years ago.  That is startlingly close to the beginning of civilization and recorded history.  But for a few thousand years there would probably be historical accounts of this species and perhaps (if they learned the whole civilization thing from us) they'd still be around today.  That's an awfully close call in evolution time!

As for "why haven't we captured an adult giant squid", the TV show actually discussed this.  Aparently the squid have such good eyesight that they can see the nets coming.  They're smart enough to avoid them and, judging by marks on some of the captured fish, sometime's they're even smart enough to follow the nets, reach in, and help themselves to some of the catch!

[Hagar]

Didn't I see some photos of a giant squid washed up on a beach somewhere? Quite recently in fact, no more than a couple of years ago. Or is this just another figment of my imagination?

PS. Found one although this isn't the one I was thinking of. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/07/22/australia.squid/

[Hagar]

Back on-topic. Maybe I'm just an old cynic but whenever I read about these new discoveries it reminds of the Piltdown Man fiasco. This was in all the text books & taught as fact when I was at school. I treat all such stories with a pinch of salt these days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/archaeology/piltdown_man_01.shtml

[Chris_F]

Didn't I see some photos of a giant squid washed up on a beach somewhere? Quite recently in fact, no more than a couple of years ago. Or is this just another figment of my imagination?

Probably not your imagination.  There are plenty of dead giant squid around, including one in the Smithsonian museum (that thing is uuuuggggllllyyy!).  But people have yet to see a living one (except for the babies that is).

[Chris_F]

Back on-topic. Maybe I'm just an old cynic but whenever I read about these new discoveries it reminds of the Piltdown Man fiasco. This was in all the text books & taught as fact when I was at school. I treat all such stories with a pinch of salt these days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/archaeology/piltdown_man_01.shtml

Yup, a dose of healty scepticism is important in science.  Unfortunately science-journalists often short-circuit the whole "peer review" process by making new "discoveries" public before the science community can do due dilligence.  The piltdown man is one such example, of which there are many.  Cold fusion being the one that sticks in my mind.

[mosquito633]

Yup its true Giant squid do exist.I went to a confrence on it a few months back.  And it was rather interesting. THere mian proof of giant squid other than the babies is infact on whales!! Inside the stomachs of certain species of whales they have found beaks,twice and even three times the size of your average squid beak.  Also the giant sucker and scratch marks on the sides of the whales are a good indication.  As for not catching giant squid. There is a theory that the dead giant squid become opaque(see through)They have discovered this as one they captured some baby giant squid, and failed miserably at breeding them(due to captivity) the dead baby squid turned opaque....interesting
i think we should go find the loch ness monster!! hes there somewhere i swears

[Hagar]

i think we should go find the loch ness monster!! hes there somewhere i swears

I think Nessie is generally regarded as a she.

[Wing Nut]

As I understand it, the giant squid run so deep that the only time we're likely to see one is when they die and get washed up...

[Tequila Sunrise]

As I understand it, the giant squid run so deep that the only time we're likely to see one is when they die and get washed up...

More or less, my grandfather was involved in recovering one from a beach not too far from here its carcus is now presserved by the natural history museum  8)
I saw a documentary about deep see animals that had a story about an American Destroyer that was suposedly "attacked" by one whilst on sea trials, it came back to port and the rubber over the sonar gear had been shredded.