Posted on 05/27/2015 10:23:29 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A new species of ancient human has been unearthed in the Afar region of Ethiopia, scientists report.
Researchers discovered jaw bones and teeth, which date to between 3.3m and 3.5m years old.
It means this new hominin was alive at the same time as several other early human species, suggesting our family tree is more complicated than was thought.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
The new species has been called Australopithecus deyiremeda, which means "close relative" in the language spoken by the Afar people.
The ancient remains are thought to belong to four individuals, who would have had both ape and human-like features..
Living with Lucy
Lead researcher Dr Yohannes Haile-Selassie, curator of physical anthropology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the US, told BBC News: "We had to look at the detailed anatomy and morphology of the teeth and the upper and lower jaws, and we found major differences.
"This new species has very robust jaws. In addition, we see this new species had smaller teeth. The canine is really small - smaller than all known hominins we have documented in the past."(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Thanks afraidfortherepublic, will ping after travel.
Scientists Discover World’s Oldest Stone Tools
“dating back 3.3 million years”
The Earth Institute | 2015-05-20 | The Earth Institute
Posted on 5/20/2015 11:02:59 PM by OK Sun
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3292000/posts
“The Russians just basically drilled a hole in the ice, pumped out some water, then put it under a microscope.”
“Look what we have discovered! Microbes man has not had contact with in millions of years. What could possibly go wrong? We want Nobel Prize!”
Right—as if the theory of evolution, the entire framework of modern biology, is based on a single reconstruction of whale evolution.
And that “Dr. Werner”, creationist priest who runs that website—what, exactly, is he doctor of?
“I instantly worry about the science when I see a “local” name like that.”
The name Haile-Selassie is unquestionably Ethiopian.
Isn’t the wig supposed to go under the helmet?
yeah.... it doesn’t
Thanks afraidfortherepublic.
Fossilization - How Fossils Form
Aye, 'tis a "bone" no longer...
“...the fossil also appeared to have lockjaw, and pronounced eye enlargement just like Nancy, it’s most recent descendant.”........
Pelosi has never been known to have “lockjaw”.
Igneous rocks are formed by molten rock solidifying. They seldom contain fossils because the heat tends to destroy the remains. You might have been thinking sedimentary rocks?
3 million years old. Why not just make it 20 million what the heck. :-)
I certainly hope so.
That's why I was instantly worried.
I get the same worry when “local” Hispanics are in charge of pre-Columbian digs in Latin America.
Thanks for the Wiki link, Trapper.
I'm glad to hear Dr. Haile-Selassie has been published before and is a respected fossil spotter.
My reason for being so certain Haile-Selassie is genuine Ethiopian, is I had the honor of being within a few feet of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1968 as he walked his dog on the other side of a street in Asmara, Eithiopia (now Asmara, Eritrea).
Life’s little tidbits.
Speaking of “fossils”, my recollections of that era is that I toured what I recall a dig pertaining to the Queen Of Sheba, and I believe that was in northern Ethiopia.
If Australopithecus deyiremeda lived at the same time as Lucy, they should consider calling it Linus.
Dating a fossil by the layer it’s found in
is the epitome of “begging the question”.
As I understand it, radiometric dating of rocks is based on when the rock solidified from lava. According to what I have read on the subject here, sedimentary rock would not necessarily be the measured age, unless we some how knew it was eroded and then formed soon after the rock solidified.
My impression of the typical case is that dated fossils are found in some layer of sedimentation sandwiched between layers of igneous rock. Then radiometric dating is performed on the igneous rock layers and the date is interpolated across the layers--but I don't have even the slightest practical experience with such things...and I wonder how I can be certain the dates in the article's case are really accurate or if the researcher in this particular case is a bit of a quack.
Some igneous rocks are volcanic ash, often call tuff, which might be relatively cool when they reach the ground. Also fossils can be found in non igneous layers between igneous layers. For fossils/remains older than 50,000 years there are other means of measuring than C14. Hopefully some other FReeper can tell you about them or you could Google “dating old geologic material.”
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