Fossil Find Is Missing Link in Human Evolution, Scientists Say

National Geographic News ^ | April 13, 2006 | John Roach

[Senator Bedfellow]

When the famous skeleton of an early human ancestor known as Lucy was discovered in Africa in the 1970s, scientists asked: Where did she come from?

Now, fossils found in the same region are providing solid answers, researchers have announced.

Lucy is a 3.5-foot-tall (1.1-meter-tall) adult skeleton that belongs to an early human ancestor, or hominid, known as Australopithecus afarensis.

The species lived between 3 million and 3.6 million years ago and is widely considered an ancestor of modern humans.

The new fossils are from the most primitive species of Australopithecus, known as Australopithecus anamensis. The remains date to about 4.1 million years ago, according to Tim White, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

White co-directed the team that discovered the new fossils in Ethiopia (map) in a region of the Afar desert known as the Middle Awash.

The team says the newly discovered fossils are a no-longer-missing link between early and later forms of Australopithecus and to a more primitive hominid known as Ardipithecus.

"What the new discovery does is very nicely fill this gap between the earliest of the Lucy species at 3.6 million years and the older [human ancestor] Ardipithecus ramidus, which is dated at 4.4 million years," White said.

The new fossil find consists mainly of jawbone fragments, upper and lower teeth, and a thigh bone.

The fossils are described in today's issue of the journal Nature.

Found Links

According to White, the discovery supports the hypothesis that Lucy was a direct descendent of Australopithecus anamensis.

[jec41]

My average and mean age is 65.

[Conservative Texan Mom]

I sometimes wonder if anyone ever looks at the wording in Genesis

Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds."
and
"Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds".

Job 38 is an enlightening passage as to the scope of God's power. I don't get the need to restrict him with our limited understanding.

[Ichneumon]

Challenge him on his claimed area of expertise -- biochemistry or medicine. Can you do that?

I already have.

[Tribune7]

Prepare for personal attacks by the zealots. ...he said, throwing a personal attack himself ("zealots").

Ichy, that's a good one to let hang out there for a bit --- but what is the comment and who is the person that I am attacking in my warning to ejroth?

[furball4paws]

Grenada or Poland?

[Tribune7]

There you go. Let's see what he says.

[Alter Kaker]

My average and mean age is 65.

I'm sorry, but I think that means your current age is 130. And I thought I was the only guy over 115 on FR...

[Conservative Texan Mom]

Good post! Metmom came up with a similar analogy.

I have often wondered this. If I was told a story of a family, then asked to arrange pictures of that family according to the story, how might it differ from arranging the pictures without knowing the story.

I don't dispute the evidence, but I do wonder if it is interpreted correctly. That's why I ask so many questions.

[Alter Kaker]

Grenada or Poland?

Undoubtedly a graduate of the illustrious Hollywood Upstairs Medical College, Class of 1982.

[furball4paws]

I went through my mean age about 20 years ago. No I've entered the age of Mellowness :-)

[CarolinaGuitarman]

placemarker

[thomaswest]

Quoting with added emphasis: The Theory of Evolution has always been and will always be a theory and one that lacks good evidence .

It seems to me that this a statement that says "my mind is closed forever on this". "Always will be..." a very strange way to 'think' that new evidence might appear or that you might be open to a new idea.

[Tribune7]

Challenge him on his claimed area of expertise -- biochemistry or medicine. Can you do that? . . . I already have.

I take that back. Where is the challenge to biochemcial or medical expertise in Post 113?

[js1138]

This is second time I've heard about this "DNA's missing link" stuff. Is this the birth of a new talking point?

Unless we have a complete genome for every individual living thing that ever existed, we will always have missing links. and the more links we find, the more links will be missing.

The quesiion I like to see addressed is, which explanatory hypothesis expects to find intermediates, and which explanatory hypothesis has a basis for predicting the features of new fossil finds?

[Conservative Texan Mom]

Is the timeline determined by comparing it to other fossils, or by the strata in which it was found, or both, or something altogether different?
Thanks

[js1138]

Try post 120

why don't you explain to us what exactly is flawed in the findings and methods by which, say, endogenous retroviruses are used to validate evolutionary relationships?

[jec41]

You are correct, I stated it wrong. My curent age is 65, I expect a total of 130.

[Right Wing Professor]

If I was told a story of a family, then asked to arrange pictures of that family according to the story, how might it differ from arranging the pictures without knowing the story.

We know the order. Radioactive dating and stratigraphy give it to us.

We also have the entire genomes for a large number of grandchildren. From that, we can infer a great deal about their ancestors.

[Alter Kaker]

You are correct, I stated it wrong. My curent age is 65, I expect a total of 130.

So does that mean I'm the only 120 year old on FR? Now I'm disappointed.

[jec41]

I went through my mean age about 20 years ago. No I've entered the age of Mellowness :-)

Its much less stressful.