Fossils Bridge Gap in African Mammal Evolution

Reuters to My Yahoo! ^ | Wed Dec 3, 2003 | Patricia Reaney

[Pharmboy]

LONDON (Reuters) - Fossils discovered in Ethiopia's highlands are a missing piece in the puzzle of how African mammals evolved, a team of international scientists said on Wednesday.

Little is known about what happened to mammals between 24 million to 32 million years ago, when Africa and Arabia were still joined together in a single continent.

But the remains of ancestors of modern-day elephants and other animals, unearthed by the team of U.S. and Ethiopian scientists 27 million years on, provide some answers.

"We show that some of these very primitive forms continue to live through the missing years, and then during that period as well, some new forms evolved -- these would be the ancestors of modern elephants," said Dr John Kappelman, who headed the team.

The find included several types of proboscideans, distant relatives of elephants, and fossils from the arsinoithere, a rhinoceros-like creature that had two huge bony horns on its snout and was about 7 feet high at the shoulder.

"It continues to amaze me that we don't have more from this interval of time. We are talking about an enormous continent," said Kappelman, who is based at the University of Texas at Austin.

Scientists had thought arsinoithere had disappeared much earlier but the discovery showed it managed to survive through the missing years. The fossils from the new species found in Ethiopia are the largest, and at 27 million years old, the youngest discovered so far.

"If this animal was still alive today it would be the central attraction at the zoo," Tab Rasmussen, a paleontologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri who worked on the project, said in a statement.

Many of the major fossil finds in Ethiopia are from the Rift Valley. But Kappelman and colleagues in the United States and at Ethiopia's National Science Foundation (news - web sites) and Addis Ababa University concentrated on a different area in the northwestern part of the country.

Using high-resolution satellite images to scour a remote area where others had not looked before, his team found the remains in sedimentary rocks about 6,600 feet above sea level.

[Pharmboy]

"If this animal was still alive today it would be the central attraction at the zoo," Tab Rasmussen, a paleontologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri who worked on the project, said in a statement.

I'll bet...

[Pharmboy]

PING

[Just mythoughts]

"It continues to amaze me that we don't have more from this interval of time. We are talking about an enormous continent." said Kappelman...."

This should give some clues, about all those missing "links", but oh well, guess they will have wait til they meet up with old Darwin to find the answers.

[cyborg]

I suppose years later we'll hear this was fraud like a lot of other 'missing link fossils'.

[Pharmboy]

I suppose years later we'll hear this was fraud like a lot of other 'missing link fossils'.

Ooooooookay...there was the Piltdown Hoax, and then there was...your turn! Name another...

[PatrickHenry]

PING. [This ping list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. FReepmail me to be added or dropped.]

[Hunble]

How many fossilized bones have you found in your own backyard?

Animals have been living and dying in your yard for millions of years. However, most of them rot and disintegrate instead of becoming a fossil.

Using your backyard, and it's total lack of fossils, would you conclude that there was no life in your region until you arrived?

Would you be correct in your conclusion?

[cyborg]

http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/fossils.asp

lists some more there. I absolutely do not believe my existence is pure accident and that I came from ooze.

[Just mythoughts]

Their description of connecting relatives was not set in concrete. Their language always contains "outs" in case of some new discovery.

Must have been in "science" class that bjclinton came up with "depends on the meaning of "is" is.

[Hunble]

I absolutely do not believe my existence is pure accident and that I came from ooze.

Ok, you came from dirt!

[diotima]

RADIO FREE REPUBLIC ON NOW, 5PM PACIFIC 8PM EASTERN

JEFF GANNON'S WASHINGTON WITH SPECIAL GUEST SEN. CORNYN, R-TX

LISTEN LIVE

CHAT

[cyborg]

As long as I'm not related to Bubbles the Chimp.

[PatrickHenry]

Might as well give an interesting link:
15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense. From Scientific American

[Hunble]

No problem, only a Creationist will tell you that you came from a Chimp. Scientists know better.

[Pharmboy]

While some REAL fossils have been misinterpreted as missing links, they aren't "frauds." The Piltdown was a fraud, the others were not.

As far as YOU coming from "ooze," no YOU didn't: you came from mom and dad. But going back a few billion years, I guess you could call it ooze.

You're making it personal and emotional; as a nurse you should know better than that--science tries to be as objective as possible (though it surely does not always succeed).

Best to you and yours,

PB

[Just mythoughts]

I have on my monitor a rock about 6 inches X 4 inches and about 2 inches thick. It is filled with fossils. I found it along a river bank about 3 hours from my home.

I have been to Glen Rose, Texas, and put my feet into the HUGE footprints made "ages" ago when the dinosaurs age ended.

I believe the evidence when I see it, and there are no "skeletal remains" of transitioning "apes" to "humans", no matter who claims it is what happened.

[PatrickHenry]

... there are no "skeletal remains" of transitioning "apes" to "humans", no matter who claims it is what happened.

Human Ancestors
Comparison of all skulls,
Arguments we think creationists should NOT use from Answers in Genesis.

[Hunble]

Once again, only a Creationist will tell you that there should be a steady transition between "apes" and "humans."

Scientists know better.

[cyborg]

Who is making it emotional?I see no reason to believe in evolution. I believe in creation. I believe in God and that God created me.

[Pharmboy]

I absolutely do not believe my existence is pure accident and that I came from ooze.

That's emotional...you're saying that you are too important or too whatever to have arisen without God. That is not reason, it's emotion. Faith is emotion, not reason.