Posted on 04/06/2009 9:54:00 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A recently unearthed ancient human skull shows signs of a disorder that might have caused mental retardation. This offers the earliest evidence that ancestors of Homo sapiens did not abandon young with severe birth defects.
The 500,000-year-old skeleton belonged to a five to 12-year-old child who suffered from craniosynostosis. The rare congenital condition occurs when two of the flat bones that make up the skull fuse together along their margins (sutures) too early during fetal development, hindering brain growth. Spanish researchers discovered the first pieces of the skull near Atapuerca, Spain, in 2001, but they only recently pieced enough of it together to make a conclusive diagnosis...
The child suffered from a form of craniosynostosis that occurs in about 1 in every 200,000 children. He or she was a member of the species Homo heidelbergensis, -- early humans that lived in Europe up to 800,000 years ago and may have given rise to Neanderthals. The discovery marks the earliest example of a human skeleton with signs of a physical deformity that that might have made the individual dependent on others for survival. Most animals, including primates, sacrifice or abandon young born with crippling deformities, Gracia says. It's impossible to know whether the child suffered from any cognitive problems, but he or she would undoubtedly have looked different from family and friends, she says.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Warren Buffet, run for your life!
I clicked on your screen name. You have a great FR page.
Read the book Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne. Just published. It's concise, comprehensive, engagingly written and utterly convincing.
Thanks
I’ve read these notions in bits and pieces over the years. Utterly unconvincing, I’m afraid, and taken seriously by virtually no scientists.
“taken seriously by virtually no scientists”
NOT true.
You won’t give it an honest hearing. I see.
“Fake moon landings” and “thermite found in WTC rubble” don’t get a hearing, either.
ridiculous analogy, since all of the greatest scientists that have ever lived have been creationists.
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