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.

[bondserv]

That's just another thing most of the creationists on FR do very poorly. Many of them look like utter plagiarists, not even linking or attributing the sources at all.

What? That's disingenuous.

I've sourced my articles, and so does C-E Headlines.

[Right Wing Professor]

Please note, for future reference, that on this thread, the evos assertted that rape does not occur in humans!

Nobody said that. You are clearly incapable of understanding plain English; or perhaps you're just a dishonest troll.

[Right Wing Professor]

What we have learned today from great scientific minds: Rape does not occur in the human species.

So, bondserv; I respect your honesty. Would you like to point out to us all where someone claimed rape does not exist in humans, or are you going to stand by your co-religionist, and the truth be damned?

[bondserv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1033396/posts?page=630#630

[bondserv]

It looks to me like Mark is being raped by three or four evo's, and I bet they won't admit it. Seems accurate to me. :-)

[bondserv]

^

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you both so very much for the pings!

betty boop, I think you "hit the nail on the head" with this comment:

We non-specialist consumers of scientific information seem often quite left in the dark, when it comes to questions of epistemology, the "science" of what we know; how we know it; and how we know we know it.

IMHO, mathematics is the most epistemologically zealous of all the disciplines - and the post hoc disciplines are the least zealous (anthropology, archeology, evolution.) It may be the "nature of the beast" in trying to construct what happened after-the-fact, but it leaves a hollow in some of us "consumers of the scientific information".

Concerning the general creation v evolution debate:

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane [and] vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace [be] with thee. Amen. - I Timothy 6:20-21

The Scriptures reveal Truth - science is not in the same arena.

[Elsie]

Only in some species. Certainly not in humans. And not between species.

Oh YEAH!?!?!

---

Tell that to the sheep in Wyoming!!!

[Elsie]

So THIS is where you are hangin' out!



(I got called to the party late...............)

[Elsie]

I notice that the Jumping Jesus faction

HHMmm.....

---

How profound............

[Elsie]

Well, Elsie, it looks like I've come in at the advanced name calling stage [all the snacks have been eaten and the booze is starting to bring out the high quality rhetoric]

(I do hope some folks have a designated driver to get them home safely.)

[bondserv]

Science is fun and sometimes helpful.

We must strain all knowledge through the filter of our Lord, the living Word of God, Jesus Christ.

[Junior]

T'ain't what was said at all. The question posed was whether he knew this from personal experience.

You're better than this.

[js1138]

Oh YEAH!?!?!

What exactly does that mean?

[biblewonk]

That's the most [sic]'s I've ever seen.

[Elsie]

That this ---> You know darn well your theory of evolution holds that the biggest and strongest male in the animal kingdom is the most likely to mate with the females <-- is moderated by the old saw found on a travel brochure..........

Visit WYOMING!

Where the men are MEN

(and the sheep are scared)

[Elsie]

For all we know, the only reason modern humans and neanderthals can't interbreed is that the neanderthals died out.

They DID??

I propose that if you that the imaginings of the artist who puts a face on the neanderthal skull and draw he/she/it in a business suit, that you could find them somewhere on the streets of NYC today!

[Elsie]

You were the one who said intercourse will occur whenever the male can overpower the female. I really couldn't believe you would believe such a stupid statement, so I illustrated it's stupidity with absurdity.

Ain't Evolution wonderful!?

(Except from the MALE preying mantis viewpoint!)

[Elsie]

Someone in this thread needs to post the difference between 'rape' and bestiality............

[Elsie]

Well, the SPELL CHECKER passed it!

(I need a SENSE CHECKER!)

I propose that if you TAKE the imaginings