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.
With very minor exceptions, these same bones are shared by all primates and most mammals. The farther you get from primates the more differences you find.
I was amazed in the bone lab when, after most of a semester of looking at human bones--from small fragments to whole crania--the professor brought out the monkey skulls. I could identify every bone, and the overall shape was remarkable similar. Differences in size and some details, but if you know human cranial bones you know primate ones as well.
As far as eight bones and Ethiopia, Fester--is it happy hour where you are already?
Another word you don't understand: pectoral.
you are missing quite a few bones there, Fester.
just so you know - the "cranium" technically includes every bone north of the Atlas. this includes the mandible. this includes the nasal bones. depending on how you reckon things, the human cranium consists of about 22 bones.
Care to describe what a transitional between an animal and a human might look like? If it existed of course.
um, Fester?
I do hope you were joking.
the "pectoral girdle" and associated extremities in non-primates are analogous to the primate shoulder-collar-arm assembly.
we don't walk on our hands.
you might, but we don't.
DINGDINGDINGDING!!! Your Brain on Creationism candidate!
Unless they're mentioned in Genesis, they don't count.
I live in the United States, and I assume my cranium is comprised of eight bones. I also assume your cranium has the same number. Also the craniums of all the people who live in Ethiopia. Also the cranium of this supposed "missing link" that has tools strewn about its proximity.
oh.
I suggest you use that as a tagline. That's beautiful.
Fester,
Would you like a list of the human cranial bones, taken from a human osteology handbook which I acquired from the local police CSI lab? Would you consider such a source (written by an osteologist and paleontologist and forensics man named Bass) as authoritative?
Man has all the mammal characteristics, every one of them. So do whales. (OK, most whales lack hair. However, there are other naked mammals, especially aquatic ones.) A whale, like man, is a mammal and an animal.
You probably meant to say that a whale can have some fish characteristics but not be a fish. So it does. It has a streamlined body. But even stated correctly, all you have is a bad analogy. A whale lacks several salient characteristics of fish. No gills, no scales, no exothermy. Live birth rather than hatching from eggs. It suckles its young.
Now more than ever, we can tell what a thing is. Mammals are animals. Humans are mammals.
Sentient people assume that those who can't distinguish between 8 and 22 and who don't care to learn the difference have little to contribute in a discussion of science.
Depends on your source. Some make a distinction between cranial (8) and facial (14) bones. If it is any consolation, I'll happily concede that my cranium, and that of this find, and those of the people in Ethiopia all have 22 bones.
I don't see your responses to post 50. Which ones are the humans and which ones are the (totally unrelated to us) apes?
"I live in the United States, and I assume my cranium is comprised of eight bones."
So, you're not human?
"I also assume your cranium has the same number."
Nope, I'm human.
"Also the craniums of all the people who live in Ethiopia."
Why Ethiopia? Why pick them?
"It would be a transition from the one to the other.
And the difference between humans and animals is...?
Surely you have a method for differentiating between the two. Care to share it?
I'm sure that the method would enable us to tell which of post 50's skulls are human and which are animal.
Johannes Beringer, is that you?
OMG LOLOL just ain't good enough.
Since WJB admitted (because he was consistent) on the stand that humans were not mammals, even the Scopes Crackers laughed themselves silly. And H.L. Mencken said he did while in the first row was a woman giving her infant some "titty".
After all those years, what's your excuse?
And I'd bet ol' WJB would never say a whale is a fish. I guess the Sunday cartoons are early this week.
OOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL (somebody call the paramedics, whimper, whimper, sniff, sniff......)
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
Ouch this hurts.
Tell me how many bones are in each skull and whether tools were found in the vicinity and I'll tell you which ones I think are human, and which not.
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