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 ...
No, no, FRiend, not the same.
Not the same species, not the same genus even.
Hardly the same family.
That would be Homo PoliticoSocialisticus a type of viral infection.
;-)
I had completely forgotten about that. A little literary convenience to keep reality at bay.
I wish I had her scholarship, and enough talent to write a reality based prehistory docunovel. The reason she was temporarily successful was she came close to the mark, but stopped creating the character, started having her own escapist fantasy pretending she was in her character’s moccasins.
Jim Kjelgaard wrote a good one, kind of the same premise, for the teen market.
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Hunter-Jim-Kjelgaard/dp/B00005VWW4
Same kind of premise. Pre-historic genius invents spear thrower, domesticates dog, discovers poison projectile...
A good read, but short.
She has been financially extremely successful, hasn’t she?
The novels fit into the fantasy-feminist view of life.
She sold 45 million books by 2010. Personal income from them has likely been over $50 million, not including movie rights.
She did not publish a novel until 44 years old.
I was pleased to learn that she is happily married with 5 children.
Yeah, I didn’t post that one, for one thing, I’m not a fan of the macaque, or to tell the truth, of the chimp either (the latter use sharp sticks to kill and eat bushbabies).
Instead of a hominim, one of her neighbors was a Vitameatavegemin.
I have seen several reports that William Frawley (Fred) and Vivian Vance (Ethel) really disliked one another.
The were real professional actors. So they were able to work with someone they disliked for good money.
On the subject of Disneyfying nature, aside from the recent alligator incident, I had an interesting observation in Orlando around 35 year ago. There was an island in a lake with big birds including turkey, flamingo, Maribou Stork, and peacocks. I went there 3 times during on week. The first time there was a mother duck with about 25 ducklings swimming in a channel. The second time I was there about 18 young. As I was watching, a Maribou Stork suddenly speared one and ate it. A woman standing nearby yelped in astonishment and said something like, “Oh, no, this is real life that big bird just ate the baby duck.” On my third visit the mother duck had only 11 chicks. These all had the habit of swimming close to their mother, unlike the first time I saw them when they were scattered over a fair distance.
The Haile-Selassie referred to was no doubt a younger relative. I seem to recall reading that a son or grandson had become a paleontologist or archaeologist.
Yes, the bulk of the American population has now grown up in cities where food comes from a store.
Up to two generations ago, the bulk of Americans had intimate experience with processing food and meat.
Not any more.
The Haile-Selassie in the article refers to an institute or other educ org either named after *the* Haile Selassie (ganja, mon) or still referred to by that name (Addis Ababa University was named after him from 1962 until his overthrow in the 1970s).
Whoops — it refers to “This multidisciplinary project is led by Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History.”
Best known roles for both, neither one was happy, but that’s Hollywood for ya. Still beats workin’ for a living.
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