Now that I think about it, it does seem rather strange that it took so long for us to figure this out. The Easter Island heads have bodies! Here are some pics:
The article I link to says this may have been caused by a Tsunami. Hayek of course would not have been surprised. By the way, what does this do to this story?
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Seriously, no one looked under them until now?!
@Speedmaster – "archaeologists have studied the statues on the island for about a century, and have been aware of the torsos beneath the statues' heads since the earliest excavations in 1914."
source: http://www.livescience.com/20580-easter-island-heads-bodies.html
@Prof Rizzo – Given his continuous citation of Tilburg's work on the island in "Collapse" and that he uses the same measurements listed in the above Live Science article, my guess is that "this story" told by Diamond is not impacted by whether the moai are heads or bodies – he never specifies in the linked article.
