Undated handout photo shows the skull of Toumaï, a seven-million-year-old fossil believed to be the remains of the earliest human ever found, found in 2001. New fossil remains as well as the 3D reconstruction of the skull confirm that the creature is the oldest species of the human branch, a common ancester of the chimpanzee and of homo sapiens. (AFP/File/MFPT)
Ping
Early Democrat.
I didn't think radioisotope decay rates worked much beyond about 60,000 years. How does one infer 7 million from this kind of data? Just curious.
“Toumai’s supporters used 3D computer reconstructions to show that the structure of the cranium had clear differences from those of gorillas and chimps and indicates that Toumai was able to walk upright on two feet”
Yeah, right. They can tell all that from the structure of the brain.
Let’s see the rest of the skeleton and then maybe it can be determined whether it walked upright or not.
Ping
I had an amazing conversation with a friend yesterday. He’s highly educated with two advanced degrees but thought that dinosaurs and humans were both on the earth at the same time and nteracted. At first I thought he was pulling my leg but nope. Did I mention he’s a total left wing lib who thinks we should drop all sanctions against Cuba so we can import their sugar cane to make ethanol to stop global warming.
IB4 the Helen Thomas pic.
“Still unclear, though, is the exact line of genealogy from these small, rather ape-like creatures to the rise of the powerfully-brained Homo sapiens.”
In other words this is a small ape which had a small brain.
But it makes for good headlines doesn’t it?
Hopefully more examples will turn up.
Carbon date Bob Byrd. I’m just sayin’.
EosimiasTiny Fossil AnimalFossil bones of an animal no bigger than a shrew and weighing less than an ounce have been identified as belonging to the earliest known relative in the primate lineage that led to monkeys, apes and humans. The wee animal lived 45 million years ago in a humid rain forest in what is now China... The paleontologists who announced the discovery yesterday said the fossil animals, named Eosimias for "dawn monkey," were the best evidence yet for fixing the time and place of one of the more fateful branchings in evolution. Eosimias appeared to be a transitional figure when lower primates, known as prosimians, went their separate way, developing into today's lemurs, lorises, bush babies and tarsiers, while the diverging higher primates, anthropoids, evolved into more prepossessing creatures, eventually including human beings... scatterings of fossils point to the earliest primates of any kind appearing about 55 million years ago, mainly in Asia. But when the two lines of primates diverged had seemed to be lost in the wide gaps in the fossil record... This was further evidence that, although the more immediate human forebears arose in Africa, their earliest primate ancestors appeared to come from Asia. Somehow primates then migrated to Africa. Dr. MacPhee said the Euroasian origin of primates was now generally accepted by scientists, "thanks in part to Beard's work," but "why that should be is itself controversial now."
May Link Lower Primates
With Humans
by John Noble Wilford
March 16, 2000
Spread Of Endogenous Retrovirus K Is Similar In The DNA Of Humans And Rhesus MonkeysAccording to paleontologic and molecular studies, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is the closer relative to the humans (Homo sapiens) and that both lineages had a common ancestor at 5 to 7 million years ago.
adapted from Public Library Of Science materials
ScienceDaily
Friday, October 12, 2007
Moreover, the human-chimp lineage split from that of the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) around 25 million years ago. However, by studying the population dynamics of complete copies of primate endogenous retrovirus family K (ERV-K) in the genomes of humans, chimpanzee and rhesus monkey, a surprising pattern was observed.
The study by Romano and colleagues being published this week on PLoS One revealed that human ERV-K had a similar demographic signature to that of the rhesus monkey, both differing greatly from that of the chimpanzee. The data suggested that the humans and rhesus have been purging ERV-K copies from their genomes while the chimpanzee ERV-K population kept the signature of increasing numbers of ERV-K amplification in the genome of ancestral primates during the last 20 million years.The Chimp Genome Reveals A Retroviral Invasion In Primate EvolutionSearching the genomes of a subset of apes and monkeys revealed that the retrovirus had integrated into the germline of African great apes and Old World monkeys -- but did not infect humans and Asian apes (orangutan, siamang, and gibbon). This undermines the notion that an ancient infection invaded an ancestral primate lineage, since great apes (including humans) share a common ancestor with Old World monkeys... Eichler and colleagues estimate that gorillas and chimps were infected about 3-4 million years ago, and baboon and macaque about 1.5 million years ago. The disconnect between the evolutionary history of the retrovirus and the primates, the authors conclude, could be explained if the Old World monkeys were infected by "several diverged viruses" while gorilla and chimpanzee were infected by a single, though unknown, source... As for how this retroviral infection bypassed orangutans and humans, the authors offer a number of possible scenarios but dismiss geographic isolation: even though Asian and African apes were mostly isolated during the Miocene era (spanning 24 to 5 million years ago), humans and African apes did overlap.
adapted from Public Library Of Science materials
ScienceDaily
Tuesday, April 5, 2005Retrovirus Struck Ancestors Of Chimps And Gorillas Millions Of Years Ago, But Not Ancestral HumansWhat researchers don't understand is why the virus affected the ancestors of chimps, gorillas, and Old World monkeys, but didn't affect the ancestors of humans or of Asian apes like orangutans and gibbons. The infections took place independently, and did not originate in a common ancestor of humans and apes. The event also took place between three and four million years ago, well after the separation of humans from apes. That split is estimated to have occurred five to seven million years ago.
adapted from University Of Washington materials
ScienceDaily
Wednesday, March 9, 2005The Scars of Evolution"The most remarkable aspect of Todaro's discovery emerged when he examined Homo Sapiens for the 'baboon marker'. It was not there... Todaro drew one firm conclusion. 'The ancestors of man did not develop in a geographical area where they would have been in contact with the baboon. I would argue that the data we are presenting imply a non-African origin of man millions of years ago.'"
by Elaine Morgan
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Thanks Renfield. |
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