Posted on 07/11/2007 2:24:24 PM PDT by blam
Ethiopia unveils new find of ancient fossils
Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:13PM EDT
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered hominid fossil fragments dating from between 3.5 million and 3.8 million years ago in what could fill a crucial gap in the understanding of human evolution.
Ethiopian archaeologist Yohannes Haile Selassie said the find included several complete jaws and one partial skeleton and were unearthed in the Afar desert at Woranso-Mille, near where the famous fossil skeleton known as Lucy was found in 1974.
"This is a major finding that could fill a gap in human evolution," he told a news conference in Addis Ababa.
"The fossil hominids from the Woranso-Mille area sample a time period that is poorly known in human evolutionary study."
Researchers say the area, about 140 miles northeast of Addis, boasts the most continuous record of human evolution.
Last year, an international team of scientists unveiled the discovery of 4.1 million-year-old fossils in the region.
Lucy, the most famous find, lived between 3.3 million and 3.6 million years ago. But Yohannes said Afar had yielded early hominid fossil remains spanning the last 6 million years.
"This has placed Ethiopia in the forefront of paleoanthropology," he told reporters.
"Ethiopia is known to the world as the cradle of humankind."
Is it any wonder that the best place in the world for preserving ancient bones is the same place where the most/oldest are found?
The soil is so acidic in my area that soldiers buried during the Civil War have already disappeared...no traces of them remain in their graves.
6 million, 6 thousand. What’s the diff.
Did they find a Sally Struthers fossil trying to save them?
I have a question based on ignorance not foolishness?
How can bones be preserved after 3 - 5 million years when they are exposed to the elements and not preserved as the egyptians preserved their dead?
Wouldn’t the bones simply dissolve away b/c they are exposed to the elements, especially after 3 - 5 million years?
For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return.......
“”Ethiopia is known to the world as the cradle of humankind.””
Otherwise known as the Garden of Eden.
They're not real bones anymore. As the real bone material disolved away, that void was filled by other minerals that seeped in and solidified.
“How do they know they found ‘’hominid fossil fragments’’?????”
Because it supports TOE.
I’d imagine you can only really tell from the skulls. Finding pieces of hominid skulls and parts of other bones right next to it in the same strata would lead one to believe they are from the same individual, or at least same time period.
This may help explain where Barbara Boxer comes from.
So now it’s “semi-rock”?
Do rocks dissolve away after 3-5 million years?
It’s hard for me to fathom a period of 3-5 million years. I mean a lot happens to nature within a 1000 years let alone a few million years.
Amazing.
“Don’t they always say this? If I had a nickel for every...”
You’d have alot of nickels.....
Even if they are hominid fossils. 3-5 million year old hominid fossils??
Seems like a very long time of undisturbed preservation.
“Since we’re on the subject of old fossils.”
Hey! OB1! Cut that out! It’s almost dinnertime!
You are mean.
I haven’t eaten yet.
Actually, besides the skulls, the teeth, pelvis, hips, shoulders and hands of hominids differ significantly from that of anthropoid apes.
Someone found some extremity bones out in the woods and like a fool gathered them up and brought them to me to see if they were human. Fortunately, they weren't but as I examined them, I was sweating bullets as to how I would explain to the FBI and state police what I was doing with a crime scene spread out on my desk. I'm no anthropologist or forensic pathologist and my knowledge of bare bone examination goes back to my first year in medical school.
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