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'Lucy's baby' found in Ethiopia
BBC News on line ^ | September 20, 2006 | Unsigned

Posted on 09/20/2006 10:26:20 AM PDT by aculeus

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To: D-Chivas

Is that a picture of the babysitter?


41 posted on 09/20/2006 11:15:59 AM PDT by Hegemony Cricket (Once again, raw sewage has overflowed into the arab street)
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To: Physicist

You tell me: ape, or human? Do you know any kids with faces like that?


_______________________________________________


Nothing I've seen on kids. But there was this drunk night on Burbon Street...Come to think of it, maybe that was an ape.

Nope, no person I've seen. LOL


42 posted on 09/20/2006 11:16:47 AM PDT by MadeInAmerica (- If ILLEGAL means Undocumented - Then Breaking and Entering means Unannounced Visit)
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To: PatrickHenry
How long before somebody pounces on this sentence?

Judging by how well it was preserved, the skeleton may have come from a body that was quickly buried by sediment in a flood, the researchers said.

43 posted on 09/20/2006 11:18:54 AM PDT by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: Mr. K
Wasn't 'Lucy' discovered to be a fake about 5 years ago?

I'm sure creationists have proclaimed all fossils to be fake at some point in time.

44 posted on 09/20/2006 11:21:48 AM PDT by Dracian
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To: sandbar
I didn't know we had a tongue bone?

Here's the hyoid in a human:


45 posted on 09/20/2006 11:23:01 AM PDT by MineralMan
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To: aculeus
'Lucy's baby' found in Ethiopia

Technically, isn't the headline wrong?

The "baby's skeleton" is older than the one for Lucy. Which makes the baby skeleton, in this case over 100,000 years older. If anything, Lucy would've been a baby to this new find, except this new skeleton was from a 3 year old. Either way, the new skeleton would've been an ancestor rather than a descendant.
46 posted on 09/20/2006 11:26:10 AM PDT by adorno
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To: Physicist

"Do you know any kids with faces like that?"

You mean, besides Chelsea Clinton, right?


47 posted on 09/20/2006 11:32:08 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Kol Hakavod Lezahal)
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To: Mr. K

"Wasn't 'Lucy' discovered to be a fake about 5 years ago?"

No.


48 posted on 09/20/2006 11:32:58 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Kol Hakavod Lezahal)
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To: blam

"However, a CT scan of the skull revealed tooth development matching that of a three-year-old, the team reports in Nature (vol 443, p 296)."

Do they mean a three-year-old modern human, or a three-year-old chimp, or something they figure is in-between? Seems these guys might have developed a bit faster than us, if a little slower than the apes.


49 posted on 09/20/2006 11:34:07 AM PDT by To Hell With Poverty (The trouble with muslim immigrants: There can be no integration without inebriation!)
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To: G Larry
Knee & hip bones found far apart in depth and distance.

Please provide a reference for this claim.
50 posted on 09/20/2006 11:36:31 AM PDT by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: aculeus
'Lucy's baby' found in Ethiopia

Soon to be adopted by Angelina Jolie.

51 posted on 09/20/2006 11:38:38 AM PDT by Thinkin' Gal (As it was in the days of NO...)
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To: G Larry
How can a fraud have a baby?

How indeed? If a specimen was a fraud, we shouldn't find any more of them. We have lots of australopithecine finds. Therefore, the claims of fakery aren't looking too good.

52 posted on 09/20/2006 11:40:14 AM PDT by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: G Larry
"How can a fraud have a baby?

Are you under the impression that we have only one fossil of Australopithecus afarensis?

AL 129-1, Australopithecus afarensis
Discovered by Donald Johanson in 1973 at Hadar in Ethiopia (Johanson and Edey 1981; Johanson and Taieb 1976). Estimated age is about 3.4 million years. This find consisted of portions of both legs, including a complete right knee joint which is almost a miniature of a human knee, but apparently belongs to an adult.

Note the complete knee found. This invalidates any question about 'Lucy's' knee.

Lucy AL 288-1, "Lucy", Australopithecus afarensis
Discovered by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray in 1974 at Hadar in Ethiopia (Johanson and Edey 1981; Johanson and Taieb 1976). Its age is about 3.2 million years. Lucy was an adult female of about 25 years. About 40% of her skeleton was found, and her pelvis, femur (the upper leg bone) and tibia show her to have been bipedal. She was about 107 cm (3'6") tall (small for her species) and about 28 kg (62 lbs) in weight.

Note that the pelvis (hip) is included at the same site as the rest of the fossil. The knee was not found at the same site and was never claimed to be part of "Lucy". It has always been claimed to be a fossil of a separate specimen from "Lucy". Only creationists have claimed otherwise.

AL 333 Site, "The First Family", Australopithecus afarensis?
Discovered in 1975 by Donald Johanson's team at Hadar in Ethiopia (Johanson and Edey 1981). Its age is about 3.2 million years. This find consisted of remains of at least 13 individuals of all ages. The size of these specimens varies considerably. Scientists debate whether the specimens belong to one species, two or even three. Johanson believes they belong to a single species in which males were considerably larger than females. Others believe that the larger specimens belong to a primitive species of Homo.
"Laetoli footprints", Australopithecus afarensis?
Discovered in 1978 by Paul Abell at Laetoli in Tanzania. Estimated age is 3.7 million years. The trail consists of the fossilized footprints of two or three bipedal hominids. Their size and stride length indicate that they were about 140 cm (4'8") and 120 cm (4'0") tall. Many scientists claim that the footprints are effectively identical to those of modern humans (Tattersall 1993; Feder and Park 1989), while others claim the big toes diverged slightly (like apes) and that the toe lengths are longer than humans but shorter than in apes (Burenhult 1993). The prints are tentatively assigned to A. afarensis, because no other hominid species is known from that time, although some scientists disagree with that classification.
AL 444-2, Australopithecus afarensis
Discovered by Bill Kimbel and Yoel Rak in 1991 at Hadar in Ethiopia (Kimbel et al. 1994). Estimated age is 3 million years. This is a 70% complete skull of a large adult male, easily the most complete afarensis skull known, with a brain size of 550 cc. According to its finders, it strengthens the case that all the First Family fossils were members of the same species, because the differences between AL 444-2 and the smaller skulls in the collection are consistent with other sexually dimorphic hominoids.

Above information from here

Note the completeness of the fossil and its link to the 'family' find.

"Knee & hip bones found far apart in depth and distance.

This is where we find a fraud but it isn't a fraud by scientists but by creationists. The knee was never claimed to belong to "Lucy" but to another member of her species. The form and utility of the knee can be seen in a number of other Australopithecus afarensis fossils. According to those other finds the knee is indeed from member of "Lucy's" species. You will see here that for a time the label "Lucy" was used to signify not just that specific fossil but all Australopithecus afarensis fossils.

"Assertions of common origin employed more wishful thinking than proof.

The quantity and quality of evidence for common descent is far beyond what I suspect you have considered.

53 posted on 09/20/2006 11:43:56 AM PDT by b_sharp (Objectivity? Objectivity? We don't need no stinkin' objectivity.)
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To: Mr. K
"Wasn't 'Lucy' discovered to be a fake about 5 years ago?"

Not at all.

There was some cry from the creationist camp that it was a fraud because "Lucy's" knee was found some distance from the rest of "Lucy". However this is not the case, the knee that was found was claimed at the time, and still is, to be a part of a different Australopithecus afarensis specimen. Since that time many more A. afarensis fossils have been found, including some with their knee joint.

"Lucy" is not a fraud.

54 posted on 09/20/2006 11:50:58 AM PDT by b_sharp (Objectivity? Objectivity? We don't need no stinkin' objectivity.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Was Charley Brown the father?


55 posted on 09/20/2006 11:51:33 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: colorado tanker

Schroeder.


56 posted on 09/20/2006 12:23:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (updated my FR profile on Saturday, September 16, 2006. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Ganymede
So therefore, here is our True Prophet:


57 posted on 09/20/2006 12:24:37 PM PDT by Salamander (And don't forget my Dog; fixed and consequent.........)
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To: dfwgator

I find it interesting that Lucy's baby is actually older than Lucy.

It sure seems like a case of the chicken or the egg.


58 posted on 09/20/2006 12:31:15 PM PDT by Almondjoy
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To: east1234; dfwgator; Colonel Kangaroo; VOA; aculeus; TexasCajun; blam
I was wondering why little Ricky is in Africa.

"Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do."

59 posted on 09/20/2006 12:31:45 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: Salamander

"It's a madhouse! A madhouse!"


60 posted on 09/20/2006 12:35:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (updated my FR profile on Saturday, September 16, 2006. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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