Fossil Connects Human Evolution Dots

[Reverend AtheiStar]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/04/12...n.ap/index.html

 

Fossil connects human evolution dots

 

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The latest fossil unearthed from a human ancestral hot spot in Africa allows scientists to link together the most complete chain of human evolution so far.

 

 

The 4.2 million-year-old fossil discovered in northeastern Ethiopia helps scientists fill in the gaps of how human ancestors made the giant leap from one species to another.

 

 

That's because the newest fossil, the species Australopithecus anamensis, was found in the region of the Middle Awash -- where seven other human-like species spanning nearly 6 million years and three major phases of human development were previously discovered.

 

"We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time," study co-author and Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw said in a phone interview from Addis Ababa. "One form evolved to another. This is evidence of evolution in one place through time."

 

The findings were reported Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.

 

 

The species anamensis is not new, but its location is what helps explain the shift from one early phase of human-like development to the next, scientists say. All eight species were within an easy day's walk of each other.

 

 

Until now, what scientists had were snapshots of human evolution scattered around the world. Finding everything all in one general area makes those snapshots more of a mini home movie of evolution.

 

 

"It's like 12 frames of a home movie, but a home movie covering 6 million years," said study lead author Tim White, co-director of Human Evolution Research Center at University of California at Berkeley.

 

 

"The key here is the sequences," White said. "It's about a mile thickness of rocks in the Middle Awash and in it we can see all three phases of human evolution."

 

 

Modern man belongs to the genus Homo, which is a subgroup in the family of hominids. What evolved into Homo was likely the genus Australopithecus (once called "man-ape"), which includes the famed 3.2 million-year-old "Lucy" fossil found three decades ago.

 

 

A key candidate for the genus that evolved into Australopithecus is called Ardipithecus. And Thursday's finding is important in bridging -- but not completely -- the gap between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus.

 

 

In 1994, a 4.4 million-year-old partial skeleton of the species Ardipithecus ramidus -- the most recent Ardipithecus species -- was found about six miles from the latest discovery.

 

 

"This appears to be the link between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus as two different species," White said. The major noticeable difference between the phases of man can be seen in Australopithecus' bigger chewing teeth to eat harder food, he said.

 

While it's looking more likely, it is not a sure thing that Ardipithecus evolved into Australopithecus, he said. The finding does not completely rule out Ardipithecus dying off as a genus and Australopithecus developing independently.

 

 

The connections between Ardipithecus and Australopithecus have been theorized since an anamensis fossil was first found in Kenya 11 years ago. This draws the lines better, said Alan Walker of Penn State University, who found the first anamensis and is not part of White's team.

 

 

Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program, agreed: "For those people who are tied up in doing the whole human family tree, being able to connect the branches is a very important thing to do."

[Amanda]

 

 

ANOTHER great article! Thanks!

 

I wish it would of shown pictures and renderings of how they think we looked like then. Also, pictures of the previous - succeeding species and how this new finding fits. I tend to be a visual person. Nor did it say anything about the possible tools and lifestyle... although it did say there were many fossils there from a 6 milion year span! They, being hunters and gatherers, must have made a routine return, or what?

 

It would be interesting if some anthropologists could guesstimate how we will look a couple million years from now... if we progress the way we are tending to go now. I know that no one could know exactly what influences would play a role in our evolution. Sometimes I think we may be evolving to eventually look like the little gray aliens depicted in the abduction or UFO sitings awhile back. Bigger heads, no hair, less muscular body, light gray from avoiding the sun's effects, etc... just a thought.

[Fweethawt]

Sometimes I think we may be evolving to eventually look like the little gray aliens depicted in the abduction or UFO sitings awhile back. Bigger heads, no hair, less muscular body, light gray from avoiding the sun's effects, etc... just a thought.

No reproductive organs...

 

T'would sucketh mucheth.

[Gnosis of Disbelief]

Sometimes I think we may be evolving to eventually look like the little gray aliens depicted in the abduction or UFO sitings awhile back. Bigger heads, no hair, less muscular body, light gray from avoiding the sun's effects, etc... just a thought.

 

 

Hope not....I'd like to think we'll evolve into something other than giant, rubbery fetuses!

 

BTW, another great article, Rev!

[Amanda]

No reproductive organs...

 

T'would sucketh mucheth.

 

Fwee... think about it though... we are using our muscles less, because everything has become mechanized... AND we are using our brains more. Most people are opting to avoid the sun, maybe I notice this because I live in Florida. If we follow this trend... what do you think we will evolve more to look like? Don't you think we'll probably have big heads and slender bodies... with sex organs, of course? (BTW, I've never heard that aliens didn't have sex organs! )

 

If our ancestors, back 10 million years ago, would have seen us as their evolutionary decendents... they probably would have thought the same as we do of the gray aliens.

 

Gnosis of Disbelief... I didn't think aliens were giants... but rather small. Anyway, where do you think we are headed on the path of evolution? Whatever it is... we'll be use to it by the time we get there.

[Antlerman]

Gnosis of Disbelief... I didn't think aliens were giants... but rather small. Anyway, where do you think we are headed on the path of evolution? Whatever it is... we'll be use to it by the time we get there.

I doubt we'll be used to it by the time we get there because I think our branch in the tree of life will be extinguished through us altering our environment to the point we can't exist in it anymore, or just the course of nature on this planet. Other life will take over, and of course the ever resilient, ever present insect will continue to reign as the eternally supreme life form of this planet, long after we have killed ourselves.

 

Now there's a sobering thought.

[Lycorth]

AND we are using our brains more.

 

We are?

 

*flips on American Idol*

 

Doesn't seem like it...

 

[Gnosis of Disbelief]

Gnosis of Disbelief... I didn't think aliens were giants... but rather small. Anyway, where do you think we are headed on the path of evolution? Whatever it is... we'll be use to it by the time we get there.

 

 

Compared to the size of a normal fetus, I s'pose the aliens would be giant,

but then again, your mileage may vary. (It's all a matter of perspective,

is it not?)

 

I have no idea what human beings will look like in a few million years,

it kinda depends on what happens. I expect that human beings will

tend to branch off into different species, though, depending on the

natural and artificial environments that they'll be living in and the

social structures that human beings will develop between now and

then. Human beings aren't necessarily going to evolve into one

single form.

 

 

AND we are using our brains more.

 

We are?

 

*flips on American Idol*

 

Doesn't seem like it...

 

 

 

 

Hell, I feel brain cells dying every time I zip past the 700 Club....

[Onyx]

Gnosis, how long are insects on this earth?

I'd like to know!

[Antlerman]

Gnosis, how long are insects on this earth?

I'd like to know!

I think you meant to ask me, since I mentioned insects in responding to what was originally posted to Gnosis by Amanda? How long as a species is the question. The earliest arachnid that walked on land was around 395 million BCE during the Devonian Period. Prior to this sea based arthropods first appeared in the Cambrian period 570 million BCE. I always like to bring them up because of the misguided notion that man is somehow the crowing acheivement of evolution. Hardly so:

 

By nearly any measure, the most successful animals on the planet are the arthropods. They have conquered land, sea, and air, and make up over three-fourths of all currently known living and fossil organisms, or over one million species in all. Since many arthropod species remain undocumented or undiscovered, especially in tropical rain forests, the true number of living arthropod species is probably in the tens of millions. One recent conservative estimate puts the number of arthropod species in tropical forests at 6 to 9 million species.

Now, really how can vulnerable little man begin to compare with that level of success. The planet is theirs, and we are the temporary life forms.

[Amanda]

I doubt we'll be used to it by the time we get there because I think our branch in the tree of life will be extinguished through us altering our environment to the point we can't exist in it anymore, or just the course of nature on this planet. Other life will take over, and of course the ever resilient, ever present insect will continue to reign as the eternally supreme life form of this planet, long after we have killed ourselves.

 

Now there's a sobering thought.

 

Antlerman, why do you think we will kill ourself off?

 

Oil is coming to an end, our disposable products are becoming more environmentally friendly, recyclable programs are gaining momentum, over population is being addressed, and I think it will get better instead of too much worse?

 

Maybe we should just get more people to believe in reincarnation?

[Onyx]

Oops, it's easy to confuse some EXC people sometimes.

Amnyway, 570 million years is a long time!

[Antlerman]

Antlerman, why do you think we will kill ourself off?

 

Oil is coming to an end, our disposable products are becoming more environmentally friendly, recyclable programs are gaining momentum, over population is being addressed, and I think it will get better instead of too much worse?

 

Maybe we should just get more people to believe in reincarnation?

Firstly, if we accept that global warming is not some fringe science, liberal nonsense and has some actual teeth to it, then the prediction do show a fairly major shift looming on the horizon that may well be unavoidable. That would dramatically shift what is into some radically different for man's place on this planet. But if we accept that the science is an anti-business conspiracy and is nothing at all, then overpopulation, food, disease etc will eventually bring about a radical shift in the world for man as we know it. Are we really addressing these issues when the major influence in Africa is the Catholic Church who teaches birth control and protection during sex will send you to hell? Have they changed their tune in the last couple years?

 

But even if we are able by some stroke of our genius be able to dominate and control all that nature can throw at us, stopping or predicting all mutations of viruses that can wipe out huge chunks of populations, we are still ill-adapted for survival beyond a short window in the grand evolutionary time line on this planet. Do you really believe man will live for 65 million years? Modern man began only roughly 60,000 years ago. Arthropods as I mentioned above, began 570,000,000 years ago. That's an awful lot of zero's difference! They have survived through 5 major extinctions on this planet. I have serious doubts we would. Some mammals might, but I doubt man would.

 

If there was reincarnation, then it would be a good thing to hope to keep coming back as a spider or some other insect. You'd be guaranteed to have somewhere to keep coming back to for as long as this planet exists! (Personally, I think not looking to a future life for hope helps to make the most of this one. If you don't find meaning and fulfillment in your life here while you're alive, you blew it)

[Gnosis of Disbelief]

Antlerman, why do you think we will kill ourself off?

 

Oil is coming to an end, our disposable products are becoming more environmentally friendly, recyclable programs are gaining momentum, over population is being addressed, and I think it will get better instead of too much worse?

 

Maybe we should just get more people to believe in reincarnation?

Firstly, if we accept that global warming is not some fringe science, liberal nonsense and has some actual teeth to it, then the prediction do show a fairly major shift looming on the horizon that may well be unavoidable. That would dramatically shift what is into some radically different for man's place on this planet. But if we accept that the science is an anti-business conspiracy and is nothing at all, then overpopulation, food, disease etc will eventually bring about a radical shift in the world for man as we know it. Are we really addressing these issues when the major influence in Africa is the Catholic Church who teaches birth control and protection during sex will send you to hell? Have they changed their tune in the last couple years?

 

But even if we are able by some stroke of our genius be able to dominate and control all that nature can throw at us, stopping or predicting all mutations of viruses that can wipe out huge chunks of populations, we are still ill-adapted for survival beyond a short window in the grand evolutionary time line on this planet. Do you really believe man will live for 65 million years? Modern man began only roughly 60,000 years ago. Arthropods as I mentioned above, began 570,000,000 years ago. That's an awful lot of zero's difference! They have survived through 5 major extinctions on this planet. I have serious doubts we would. Some mammals might, but I doubt man would.

 

If there was reincarnation, then it would be a good thing to hope to keep coming back as a spider or some other insect. You'd be guaranteed to have somewhere to keep coming back to for as long as this planet exists! (Personally, I think not looking to a future life for hope helps to make the most of this one. If you don't find meaning and fulfillment in your life here while you're alive, you blew it)

 

 

The likelihood of any species remaining intact for millions of years drops off with time,

does it not? Because over time, the chances are good that the species will either go

extinct, or it will evolve into some other species to adapt to environmental changes.

When you talk about Arthropods, you're talking about an entire phylum of creatures

having many different families, genera, and species. Of course Arthropods have been

around for eons, but individual Arthropod species have come and gone. You don't see

dragonflies with 3 foot wingspans any more; they're now extinct.

 

There's a good chance that over millions of years Homo sapiens will disappear.

Even if it doesn't go extinct, it will probably evolve into one or more new species.

 

BTW, I'd rather not come back as an insect....they may be incredible creatures, but

their lives tend to be short and brutal.

[Reverend AtheiStar]

ANOTHER great article! Thanks!

 

You're welcome. I used to do Science Sunday for Larry Darby over at the Atheist Law Center. I got tired of the deadlines, though, and so I resigned. I still had all the same great news sources, though, so I thought I'd put them to good use!

 

I wish it would of shown pictures and renderings of how they think we looked like then. Also, pictures of the previous - succeeding species and how this new finding fits. I tend to be a visual person. Nor did it say anything about the possible tools and lifestyle... although it did say there were many fossils there from a 6 milion year span! They, being hunters and gatherers, must have made a routine return, or what?

 

Check this out. It's an online documentary about human evolution. It's really good and has plenty of great illustrations and recreations.

 

It would be interesting if some anthropologists could guesstimate how we will look a couple million years from now... if we progress the way we are tending to go now. I know that no one could know exactly what influences would play a role in our evolution. Sometimes I think we may be evolving to eventually look like the little gray aliens depicted in the abduction or UFO sitings awhile back. Bigger heads, no hair, less muscular body, light gray from avoiding the sun's effects, etc... just a thought.

 

All those things would have to offer selective advantages. Being big headed, weak, pale and hairless hardly sounds like an advanatge to me. lol...

 

 

Sometimes I think we may be evolving to eventually look like the little gray aliens depicted in the abduction or UFO sitings awhile back. Bigger heads, no hair, less muscular body, light gray from avoiding the sun's effects, etc... just a thought.

No reproductive organs...

 

T'would sucketh mucheth.

 

Yeah, it would! Talk about lacking selective advantage! Yikes!

 

 

Hope not....I'd like to think we'll evolve into something other than giant, rubbery fetuses!

 

lol... Sounds like devolving to me.

 

BTW, another great article, Rev!

 

<bows> Thank ya! I've got plenty more where this came from!

 

 

 

 

Gnosis of Disbelief... I didn't think aliens were giants... but rather small. Anyway, where do you think we are headed on the path of evolution? Whatever it is... we'll be use to it by the time we get there.

I doubt we'll be used to it by the time we get there because I think our branch in the tree of life will be extinguished through us altering our environment to the point we can't exist in it anymore, or just the course of nature on this planet. Other life will take over, and of course the ever resilient, ever present insect will continue to reign as the eternally supreme life form of this planet, long after we have killed ourselves.

 

Now there's a sobering thought.

 

 

Or maybe another big asteroid will hit like the one that knocked out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. I guess you could look at it like a arce. What wil make humans extinct first, nature or ourselves?

 

Now, really how can vulnerable little man begin to compare with that level of success. The planet is theirs, and we are the temporary life forms.

 

Our claim to fame is our brain and all that it's let us achieve. We're delicate, near defenseless from predation without a tool, and reproduce pretty slowly so we have to have something!