Oldest "Human" Skeleton Found --Disproves "Missing Link
 

Story here.

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.

Totally cool find.
But I can't help but wonder... we just found one? Where are all the others?

Here?

After 4 million years, it's kind of tough to find these guys.

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.

It's all a vast right-wing conspiracy

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

:D

Stupid National Geographic hacks. They should get back to showing me naked aboriginal boobies.

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."

Isn't everything? ;)

Lying around the base of volcanoes on the planet Teegeeack.


Or something like that...

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.

Did they really have hippopotamus' back then? I think it should at least be a mastedon or something cooler.

I'm not buying that conjecture about ovulation and this find's bipedalism, are you?

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.

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: