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The Modern Mythology of Giants: Why is it so Hard to Tell the Truth?

11/30/2014

5 Comments

 
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Just about everything I know about the law I learned from watching Judge Judy and taking a single criminal justice class as an undergraduate at Indiana University.  Somewhere along the way (probably from Judge Judy) I learned the maxim "Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus," which translates as "He who speaks falsely on one point will speak falsely upon all."  In other words, if you can catch a witness in one lie, you can reasonably reduce the weight of all of the rest of his testimony.  Lies hurt credibility.

On the most recent episode of Search for the Lost Giants ("The Giant Curse;" S1 E4), a visitor named Terje Dahl explains his theory that giant humans from Asia sailed across the Pacific and inter-bred with Native Americans, giving rise to the prehistoric giants of the New World that the Vieira brothers are searching for.  His theory involves the Denisovans, a recently-discovered population of hominids that lived in Siberia about 41,000 years ago.  The Denisovans are known only from a few bone fragments found in Denisova Cave: a finger bone, a toe bone, and two teeth.

Dahl produces a tooth that he says is a "replica" of the tooth from Denisova Cave.  It is a large tooth, and the brothers Vieira are suitably impressed by its size.  Dahl says: "They thought at first it was a cave bear tooth, but it’s not a cave bear tooth.  It’s a human tooth.  It’s a replica of that tooth that was found inside a Denisova cave in Siberia."


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Actually, it's neither.  It's neither a human tooth nor a replica of the Denisovan molar.  It's not even close. The figure to the left shows the tooth from Denisova Cave (top; image taken from the 2010 Nature paper by Reich et al.) and some screen captures of the tooth that Dahl presents (bottom).  The tooth from Denisova Cave is clearly a human molar.  Dahl's tooth is clearly not. (It has been many years since I've done any faunal osteology, but my guess is that Dahl's tooth is a deciduous premolar or molar from a horse or something similar - anyone know?). 

The purpose of Dahl presenting this "replica" tooth is to make a point about the physical size of the Denisovans: a very large tooth must have belonged to a very large individual, right?  Well, not really.  While it seems to make logical sense, it's not necessarily true.  T
hough not as large as Dahl's animal tooth, the actual tooth from Denisova is remarkable for its size, falling outside the known size range of second and third molars of contemporary Homo sapiens and Neanderthal populations.  That does not necessarily mean that the tooth's owner was an enormous person, however.

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As shown in the figure to the right (also taken from the 2010 Nature paper) the Denisovan tooth falls within the size range of third molars from gracile australopithecines and early Homo. Lucy, the most famous australopithecine, stood about 3'7" tall.  Homo habilis was not much taller, standing perhaps 4'3" or so.  The large molar teeth of these hominids (especially in relation to their body size) was an adaptation for a diet that required a lot of chewing.  Larger still were the molars of the robust australopithecines.  If tooth size was only related to body size, the robust australopithecines would have been large enough to eat the Denisovans for breakfast.  But they weren't.  Their massive molars were part of a specialized adaptation for a diet that required heavy duty chewing, but their bodies were about the same size as Lucy's.  Great to have on your team if you're masticating bark, less great for basketball.

The transparent misrepresentation of the animal tooth as a "replica" of the tooth from Denisova Cave should trouble anyone who wants to claim that Search for the Lost Giants is a program built on legitimate inquiry.  Do the producers of the show take any steps to check facts and vet guests before they send the CGI team to work?  Did no-one notice that the "replica" tooth probably used to belong to a horse? 

Misrepresentation and fabrication are career killers for professional scientists:
Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.  A scientist who is willing to manufacture or willfully distort evidence lacks credibility.  Search for the Lost Giants is just one of many television programs that purports to be setting the prehistoric record straight and doing the public the great service of exploring topics that our governments, schools, and scientific establishments are either ignoring or actively conspiring to conceal from us.  This show, Ancient Aliens, and America Unearthed are united by the complaint that mainstream science doesn't take them seriously. NEWS FLASH: until you begin to play by the rules of science, you will never be taken seriously by science. 
Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.

5 Comments
Joseph Layden link
4/11/2015 02:17:07 am

It is really great that you are pointing this out, as these cable shows are becoming more and more irresponsible in order to appeal to mass audiences.
However, in response to your Newsflash at the end of this post...
well, "science" has nothing to do with these programs in the first place. The problem is that these irresponsible shows are taking the place of science in the average person's mind, and when you argue against pseudoscience at the dinner table or the bar mowadays you find that science has become the minority. Nobody wants to hear that aliens weren't needed to build pyramids or that the missipian culture didn't have double rows of teeth.
But I'd also like to add that I don't blame the giant researchers so much as the money grubbing producers of these shows. Some of the giant and alien researchers really believe what they're saying, it's just that the shows stopped allowing real sciencists their rebuttals way back in the 80s when they noticed that the sheeple were switcing channels en masse whenever the real scientists made their appearance.
And I'd also like to add that though you've done a great job debunking many of the myths about giants, at least one real scientists has asserted that certain populations of heidelberg may have averaged 7 foot, many so-called "cro-magnon" finds were upwards of 6 and a half feet. Kersten Herst, ask.com's resident anthropologist, referenced sources showing that "cro-magnon" skeletons "shrunk" to the modern average from 30k to 10k, but changed her article on Cro-Magnons when it was pointed out to her by sceptic Doug Weller that her article was being used for evidence of ancient giants in the past.
FACT: There were very tall populations of archaic humans. Many of them were extremely robust compared to modern humans.
FACT: Archaic humans that existed into Neolithic times are popping up all the time, from Ewu Eleru to The Hobbit to Red Deer Cave Man, and we can only expect more varieties to pop up as time goes by.
FACT: Early agriculturalists usually experienced malnutrition for the first 1000 years or so and were therefore usually short in stature.
FACT: Depending on which scientist you ask, the skeletons in the earliest cro-magnon site in France averaged anywhere from 5'10 to 6'8. Way down in Australia at approximately the same time Mungo man stood 6'6. At least one form of early HSS was taller than we are today, it's range spanned several continents, and it probably inherited this to some degree from heidelberg ancestors.
FACT: There are legends historical accounts of giants in every culture from all over the world.
Here is the problem with this whole giant debate. Creationists try to use giants to disprove evolution...so reactionists come back trying to disprove that giants existed. What will happen as more and more Late Paleolithic 7 footers are uncovered? Will you concede to the Creationists? That would be pretty silly, since populations of tall people having existed in the past in no way contradicts the "theory" of evolution in the first place.

Reply
Andy White
4/11/2015 03:54:04 am

Hi Joseph,

Thanks for the comment. I have never said tall people didn't exist. If you look at my explanation for why I'm interested in this whole topic (the "Ancient Giants" page on the "Research Interests" pulldown menu), I touch on that: stature is a really interesting thing to study in prehistory for a number of reasons. If we make every tall person a "giant," however, and get them all mixed up with fantasies about supernatural beings, we'll never be able to get things sorted out.

Reply
Rachael
11/6/2017 09:44:22 am

I live in a small seaside town called Margate Kent on the S/E Coast of England. On a clear day;standing on the beach, looking out to sea, you are able to see Calais in France. I mention this as someones stated above ' depending on which scientist you ask, the skeletons in the earliest cro-magnon site in France, averaged anywhere from 5'10 to 6'8.'

Whilst beachcombing last year, i found a rather large, peculiar object poking out of the sand. It appears to be a tooth and a human looking one at that although, i'm no expert. I spent a bit of time trying to discover its origins but to no avail. However i did approach a man who was metal detecting at the time and asked if he knew what it was he replied " well i will tell you this for sure, it aint from anything you will find in that sea, i have been a fisherman for over 25 years trawling those waters and seen nothing quite like that before ".

I have no idea what creature the tooth came from but it resembles some of the teeth displayed on this article hence me contacting you. I think it maybe a bottom molar not sure what makes me say that is its flat one side with grooves, it has three canals the other side is bulbous and curved then tappers off not into a point but rather a flat top. Sorry about that description its the only way i am able to describe it.
I could take photos and email them if you are interested in seeing them? I have other objects that resemble teeth too not like this one however teeth they are.

Reply
Joe
11/6/2017 12:33:29 pm

Any, it's not about 'tall people." It's about "tall ehtnic groups" or "tall population groups" that lived in the historic past. Denying their existence is denying our history.

Rachael,
That is absolutely fascinating! They've found a hyper-robust jaw of a hominid here in Georgia as well. Someone dredged it up in a shrimping net and it sat on the shelf aof a marina for many years until an anatomist visited the marina by chance.
I have the newspaper reports, but cannot find it on any source online.
Can we trade data? my email is josephlayden AT (googles email service that starts with 'G")

Reply
joy murley
11/4/2018 11:53:15 am

love to see evidence based research. the real thing thank you.

Reply



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