Palau is a small collection of islands between China & Australia, with a population of only 20,000 and a land mass of 500 sq km, so in the great scheme of things, pretty unimportant really. A team of American scientists recently discovered some very interesting fossilised skulls in a cave there. Initially they thought these might be a completely new type of man, which might have rewritten our history. They were not only very small but had an unusual shaped skull. Once they got the skulls back to a laboratory they were initially disappointed to discover that these were relatively recent only 3000 years old.

These skeletons were tiny; adult males at around a metre tall and weighting around 95lbs, in other words about the same as a 5 year old. This made them the smallest humans yet found. They were at a loss to discover how they came to be there, too far from any land mass to have travelled there without relatively modern boats. In the end they were forced to conclude that these must have been the descendants of full sized Polynesians, who had arrived there, and over time, and due to a poor diet gradually got smaller and smaller. The key conclusion was that it appeared that mankind could be reshaped by evolution in a very short period, perhaps over 300 years!

This is pretty staggering stuff, because if mankind can be reshaped by his environment like this, doesn’t it put a pretty powerful spin on the message of those who are warning us that we are changing our planet day-by-day!

It appears that Change is an ever present and unavoidable force in our lives

The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms” Lao Tzu

Resources:

1. Mystery skulls of Palau
   
2. Public Library of Sciences article