Posted on 11/02/2019 10:01:04 AM PDT by gnarledmaw
A 9.7-million-year-old discovery has left a team of German scientists scratching their heads. The teeth seem to belong to a species only known to have appeared in Africa several million years later.
A team of German archaeologists discovered a puzzling set of teeth in the former riverbed of the Rhine, the Museum of Natural History in Mainz announced on Wednesday.
The teeth don't appear to belong to any species discovered in Europe or Asia. They most closely resemble those belonging to the early hominin skeletons of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) and Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus), famously discovered in Ethiopia.
But these new teeth, found in the western German town of Eppelsheim near Mainz, are at least 4 million years older than the African skeletons, which has scientists so puzzled they held off publishing for a year.
A specialist team will be carrying out further tests on the teeth.
"They are clearly ape-teeth," head of the team Herbert Lutz was quoted as saying by local online news outlet Merkurist (link in German) . "Their characteristics resemble African finds that are four to five million years younger than the fossils excavated in Eppelsheim. This is a tremendous stroke of luck, but also a great mystery."
In the press conference announcing the find, Mainz Mayor Michael Ebling claimed the find would force scientists to reconsider the history of early mankind.
"I don't want to over-dramatize it, but I would hypothesize that we shall have to start rewriting the history of mankind after today," Ebling was quoted as saying.
Regional archaeologist in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate Axel von Berg told news outlets that he was sure the the finds would receive a lot of attention. "This will amaze experts," he told a daily for the Rhine and Main river regions, Allgemeine Zeitung (link in German) .
The first paper on the find will be uploaded to Researchgate in a week's time. The teeth are still being examined in detail, but from the end of October they will be displayed at the Rhineland-Palatinate state exhibition "vorZEITEN" (link in German), after which they will go on display at the Museum of Natural History in Mainz, according to Die Welt (link in German).
The teeth were found by scientists sifting through gravel and sand in the bed of the Ur-Rhine, the former course of the river Rhine. The area has been a hotbed of fossil remains since 1820, when the first ape fossils were found. Since 2001, 25 new species have been discovered.
The teeth were found next to the remains of an extinct genus of horse, which helped them date the teeth.
But, but, but, it was settled science? How could this happen?
Ha! Get ready, Here we go...
Thanks for finding this and sharing it. :)
Found in a riverbed....washed in from somewhere? Could earth geographical features be marred (no pun intended) by earthquakes...volcanoes...asteroids...floods? Among other things
Again?
Most of the known science in this field is based on where they find fossils
Piltdown Part Deux.
...washed in from somewhere?
lol, fact.
I meant to write “but Africa, where all the really old human/prehuman stuff is usually found...”
Precisely mon ami.
Must have been a “Sell by” date on it huh?
Post ‘pangea’?
What it upsets has less to do with the dates directly and more to do with questioning the “out of Africa” theory. The questions it opens up to the “human evolution” theories are (a) did the “hominids” in Africa start out earlier in central Europe, or (b) arise simultaneously (or contemporaniously) in multiple areas, not Africa alone. The extreme differences in the oldest examples from Africa and the new discovery are more suggestive of (a) than (b).
Hasn’t anyone ever wondered what the tooth fairy does with all the teeth she collects.....?
A New History of the First Peoples in the Americas
A DNA Search for the First Americans Links Amazon Groups to Indigenous Australians
And there it is... The effort to shame anyone who even dares think outside the theological box. If you don’t believe it fine, why go out of your way to make sure no one else even discusses it without trying to shame them for doing so? There have been a whole lot of factual science and physics proven since your beliefs that originate from the personal self righteous theory of one cleric in the 1600’s.
Right off the bat geology alone disproves Ussher’s theory altogether. Being stuck in the 1600’s mentality does not further or help your own faith at all. It aids in discrediting the rationality and logic of your faith based on well known science. It does you no favors with your own argument and support of your faith. The Bible only indicates and suggests a MINIMUM age not a MAXIMUM age.
“Most likely, archaeological false teeth as these “discoveries” trying to predate man prior to about 6000 years sooner or later turn up bogus.”
It is only bogus to you because you personally refuse to accept anything other. If anything at all is proven sooner or later, it is like this find, OLDER not younger... and it keeps getting older and older as those who believe what you do remain stuck in the ignorance of the 1600’s. How many times does Ussher’s personal theory need to be proved wrong before you stop shoving it down the throats of others?
http://godandscience.org/youngearth/age_of_the_earth.html
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