Posted on 06/18/2016 3:47:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The researchers trace the fossil record, which illustrates a timeline placing multiple species overlapping in time and geographic space. Their insights spur further questions about how these early human ancestors were related and shared resources...
The 1974 discovery of Australopithecus afarensis, which lived from 3.8 to 2.9 million years ago, was a major milestone in paleoanthropology that pushed the record of hominins earlier than 3 million years ago and demonstrated the antiquity of human-like walking. Scientists have long argued that there was only one pre-human species at any given time before 3 million years ago that gave rise to another new species through time in a linear manner. This was what the fossil record appeared to indicate until the end of the 20th century. The discovery of Australopithecus bahrelghazali from Chad in 1995 and Kenyanthropus platyops from Kenya in 2001 challenged this idea. However, these two species were not widely accepted, rather considered as geographic variants of Lucy's species, Australopithecus afarensis. The discovery of the 3.4 million-year-old Burtele partial foot from the Woranso-Mille announced by Haile-Selassie in 2012 was the first conclusive evidence that another early human ancestor species lived alongside Australopithecus afarensis. In 2015, fossils recovered from Haile-Selassie's ongoing research site at the Woranso-Mille area of the Afar region of Ethiopia were assigned to the new species Australopithecus deyiremeda. However, the Burtele partial foot was not included in this species...
Paleoanthropologists face the challenges and debates that arise from small sample sizes, poorly preserved prehistoric specimens and lack of evidence for ecological diversity. Questions remain about the relationships of middle Pliocene hominins and what adaptive strategies might have allowed for the coexistence of multiple, closely related species.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
subtitled, "Confirms co-existence of multiple early human species during middle Pliocene".
She lived in a duplex, right?
Apartment building. And the elevator was broken, thanks to the two geeky physicists across the landing on the same floor of the building.
Fed and Ethel.
Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do!
Lucy invited Eve to gossip about Adam.
Old Burtele was in the elevator when it went boom leaving only a partial foot.
Fred and Ethyl Mertz.
“how these early human ancestors were related and shared resources...”
They cannot even get the science right. They would not have “shared resources”. They would have competed for resources.
Another, possibly sub-concious, effort to Disneyfy nature.
I recommend the novel "The Clan Of The Cavebear". All of the characters are Neanderthals except for the main character, who is...whatever we are.
BTW, the rest of the series sucks IMHO.
Add Her To The List.
In 2015, fossils recovered from Haile-Selassie’s ongoing research site...
Selassie IRE! Ja-Ja!
I didn’t know he was still alive then.
The Lion of Judah an anthropologist, wow!
One thing for sure, we need more bones! They are hard to get at in portions of the violent Northeast of Africa.
Monkey bones as well. This week’s New Science “Monkey archaeology’ reveals macaque’s Stone Age culture” Macaques have been using an to some degree shaping stone tools. And they a 25 million years away from a common ancestor with us.
marktwain: " 'how these early human ancestors were related and shared resources...'
They cannot even get the science right.
They would not have 'shared resources'.
They would have competed for resources. "
Twice they incorrectly said "shared", but once the quote more accurately says "exploited".
It's important to remember that, these days, the word "species" can mean almost anything.
Consider, for example, Neanderthals -- once thought a separate species or even genus only remotely related to modern humans.
Now we learn from Neanderthal DNA that they were 99% identical to us, and even interbred with modern humans, on occasion.
So they were not a separate genus, they were not even a separate species, they were us.
Today we find remains of various different pre-human "species" living side-by-side in Africa.
How different were they, really?
Could they, did they, interbreed?
Bottom line, we know for sure they were somewhat different from each other.
How different, exactly, is a matter of speculation at this point.
Homo afarensis, homo habilis:
Certainly true.
The fossil record is very sparse.
Yes,i read a few. The series just keeps getting more and more improbable.
It always was a feminist fantasy series, but it became more and more so later on.
Basically transplanting a modern feminist back 10-20 thousand years ago, and turning her into nearly a goddess.
” Basically transplanting a modern feminist back 10-20 thousand years ago, and turning her into nearly a goddess...”
Yup, she tamed every critter and made tea of every plant and was such a Nobel prize winning cavewoman tribes from across the tundras and glaciers came to receive lifechanging insight and evolved social consciousness with every “Ug” that passed her pearly white, charcoal-brushed teeth. I’m pretty sure she had a makeup kit stashed in with those roots and herbs, too.
Then the day came when I heard about Jondalar’s flowing locks and golden-fuzzed manly chest one too many times and I sent her 1800 page Neanderporn novel sailing for distance.
You know and I know when she was having “lovely fulfilling mutual intimacy” with Golden Boy she was really shutting her eyes and remembering being thrown down and pounded by that bad monkey, Broud, to even get in the mood - LOL
spitting image of Moochelle Obammy.
“1800 page Neanderporn novel”. Good description.
The most improbable thing that I recall was her knowledge of simple birth control from a herb tea. Knowledge that she never shared with anyone.
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