Posted on 03/24/2006 11:47:46 AM PST by The_Victor
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A hominid skull discovered in Ethiopia could fill the gap in the search for the origins of the human race, a scientist said on Friday.
The cranium, found near the city of Gawis, 500 km (300 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, is estimated to be 200,000 to 500,000 years old.
The skull appeared "to be intermediate between the earlier Homo erectus and the later Homo sapiens," Sileshi Semaw, an Ethiopian research scientist at the Stone Age Institute at Indiana University, told a news conference in Addis Ababa.
It was discovered two months ago in a small gully at the Gawis river drainage basin in Ethiopia's Afar region, southeast of the capital.
Sileshi said significant archaeological collections of stone tools and numerous fossil animals were also found at Gawis.
"(It) opens a window into an intriguing and important period in the development of modern humans," Sileshi said.
Over the last 50 years, Ethiopia has been a hot bed for archaeological discoveries.
Hadar, located near Gawis, is where in 1974 U.S. scientist Donald Johnson found the 3.2 million year old remains of "Lucy," described by scientists as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the world.
Lucy is Ethiopia's world-acclaimed archaeological find. The discovery of the almost complete hominid skeleton was a landmark in the search for the origins of humanity.
On the shores of what was formerly a lake in 1967, two Homo sapien skulls dating back 195,000 years were unearthed. The discovery pushed back the known date of mankind, suggesting that modern man and his older precursor existed side by side.
Sileshi said while different from a modern human, the braincase, upper face and jaw of the cranium have unmistakeable anatomical evidence that belong to human ancestry.
"The Gawis cranium provides us with the opportunity to look at the face of one of our ancestors," he added.
Ping
ZZZZzzzzzz. . .
Every few years someone comes up with one of these supposed links.
They usually all go the way of Zinthanropus . . .
Ping to self.
zzzz .... zzzzz.... zzzz....
yep.
It's going to create two gaps where there was one. This is a hugh setback for science.
|
But each gap is only half as big now, right? :)
Hugh abd series setback. Two more unexplained gaps.
yep.
You all just go ahead and ignore the data.
You wouldn't believe it anyway, so you might as well go on back to sleep.
Sounds interesting to me though. I would like to know more about the cranial morphology to see what they are referring to.
Worshipping at the altar of ignorance alert.
What's "zinthanropus"? Google gives no hits.
Remember, all gaps are unbridgeable (unless you believe in Noah's Ark and need to account for modern diversity)
Someone should give all these archeologists cameras so they could take pictures of their new finds, and we could look at them.
How CAN they believe it? How can they believe that a skull can be 500,000 years old when they KNOW that the world has only been around for 6,000 years?
Remember - all the dinosaurs lived together with the humans in Bedrock, along with Fred, Barney, BamBam and Dino.
It's a rock
Probably from a picnic there in 1973.
The victim must have gotten lost while his or her clan was playing survivor.
Zinjanthropus. It was spelled wrong, being in a creationist post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.