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View Full Version : Oldest "Human" Skeleton Found --Disproves "Missing Link

BarTopDancer
10-01-2009, 04:31 PM
Story here (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091001-ardipithecus-ramidus-ardi-oldest-human-skeleton-fossils.html).

Scientists today announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor. The find reveals that our forebears underwent a previously unknown stage of evolution more than a million years before Lucy, the iconic early human ancestor specimen that walked the Earth 3.2 million years ago.
Alex
10-01-2009, 05:33 PM
Just for clarification, it doesn't disprove the "missing link." Disproving the missing link idea in general would be disproving that human and other apes share a common ancestor. It disproves a theory that the last common ancestor between human and other apes would be chimpanzee-like.

And that's if this group's interpretation of the skeleton is correct (and this skeleton is even in our evolutionary path).


But no matter what it is an amazingly cool find.
Gemini Cricket
10-01-2009, 06:20 PM
Totally cool find.
But I can't help but wonder... we just found one? Where are all the others?
Tref
10-01-2009, 06:43 PM
But I can't help but wonder... we just found one? Where are all the others?

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z1/Tref_foto/monsterjam.jpg

Here?
Cadaverous Pallor
10-01-2009, 07:35 PM
Totally cool find.
But I can't help but wonder... we just found one? Where are all the others?After 4 million years, it's kind of tough to find these guys.
Alex
10-01-2009, 07:37 PM
I think it is pretty clear that the lack of a missing link between this missing link and the other missing link is pretty clear evidence that evolution is a Nazi-istic conspiracy.
Kevy Baby
10-01-2009, 07:39 PM
It's all a vast right-wing conspiracy
BarTopDancer
10-01-2009, 07:44 PM
Just for clarification, it doesn't disprove the "missing link." Disproving the missing link idea in general would be disproving that human and other apes share a common ancestor. It disproves a theory that the last common ancestor between human and other apes would be chimpanzee-like.

And that's if this group's interpretation of the skeleton is correct (and this skeleton is even in our evolutionary path).


But no matter what it is an amazingly cool find.

I just lifted the title from National Geographic, so they're wrong.

:D
Alex
10-01-2009, 07:46 PM
Stupid National Geographic hacks. They should get back to showing me naked aboriginal boobies.
flippyshark
10-01-2009, 08:30 PM
Totally cool find.
But I can't help but wonder... we just found one? Where are all the others?

Given the fairly narrow conditions under which dead bodies will produce fossils (dying in a mudbank is a pretty good way to do it) - we are lucky to have found as many fossils as we have.
Ghoulish Delight
10-01-2009, 10:21 PM
Totally cool find.
But I can't help but wonder... we just found one? Where are all the others?

Given the fairly narrow conditions under which dead bodies will produce fossils (dying in a mudbank is a pretty good way to do it) - we are lucky to have found as many fossils as we have.What flippy said, plus while the one that's highlighted was by far the most complete, they actually found pieces of "at least 36 other individuals."
JWBear
10-01-2009, 10:30 PM
It's all a vast right-wing conspiracy

Isn't everything? ;)
bewitched
10-01-2009, 10:34 PM
Totally cool find.
But I can't help but wonder... we just found one? Where are all the others?

Lying around the base of volcanoes on the planet Teegeeack.


Or something like that...
Alex
10-01-2009, 10:35 PM
Yeah, and the larger and softer the animal the rarer it is to end up a fossil.

You have to die and then have your body almost immediately end up in a situation that will prevent decay or being eaten. Then have that situation be stable enough that you won't be eroded to dust before we modern humans can find it but not so hard to access that we can't actually find it.

Then on top of that it wouldn't be surprising to learn that the total world population of these hominids at any one time was in the thousands or tens of thousands and it's pretty amazing we found even one in recognizable condition.

Finding parts of 36 suggests we got really lucky with a well timed (for us, not so much them) hippopotamus stampede.
cirquelover
10-02-2009, 12:17 AM
Did they really have hippopotamus' back then? I think it should at least be a mastedon or something cooler.
3894
10-02-2009, 09:16 AM
I'm not buying that conjecture about ovulation and this find's bipedalism, are you?
Alex
10-02-2009, 09:32 AM
I'm not nearly expert enough to have an opinion on how strong the claims are. But I wouldn't be surprised to find out if many of the interpretations end up being discarded.

I'm looking forward to Science Friday today on NPR. I'm assuming this will be much covered.
3894
10-06-2009, 06:02 AM
So, Daughter #1 is a Journalism major and writes for her college newspaper. Yesterday, she interviewed two of the anthropologists involved in this find because they're at her college. Hubbo was very happy about this until she e-mailed him about the interview and I quote:

Yeah, thanks for the links, Dad. I just asked them what a typical day was like, things like that.