Starvin Marvin
Posted on 03/05/2005 6:39:43 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - A joint Ethiopian-US team of paleontologists announced they had discovered the world's oldest biped skeleton to be unearthed so far, dating it to between 3.8 and four million years old.
"This is the world's oldest biped," Bruce Latimer, director of the natural history museum in Cleveland, Ohio, told a news conference in the Ethiopian capital, adding that "it will revolutionize the way we see human evolution."
The bones were found three weeks ago in Ethiopia's Afar region, at a site some 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Hadar where Lucy, one of the first hominids, was discovered in 1974.
The Leakey Foundation, which funded the team who found Lucy, dates her 40 percent intact skeleton back 2.8 million years, but other paleontological sources have said she may be as old as 3.2 million years.
Latimer and his Ethiopian colleague D. Yohannes Haile-Selassie said the newly discovered skeleton had been determined to be capable of walking upright on two feet because of the nature of the ankle bone.
"I couldn't explain in detail how it walked yet," Latimer said, "but looking at the ankle we know it is a biped."
This was the "revolutionary" aspect of the discovery, the scientists told journalists, in that it would help them learn how species like those from which modern mankind, homo sapiens, descended first learned to walk on two feet.
"This skeleton helps us to understand what happened in the joints, how walking upright occurred, what we never had before," Latimer said.
Researchers at the site in northeast Ethiopia have in all unearthed 12 hominid fossils, of which parts of one skeleton were discovered.
"Portions recovered thus far include a complete tibia, parts of a femur, ribs, vertebrae, a clavicle, pelvis, and a complete scapula of an adult," Latimer said.
"Normally, you find one bone or two from an individual and you are happy. Now we have found parts of a skeleton, this is very rare," he explained. "It says a lot more on the individual than isolated bones."
"It is already clear that the individual was larger than Lucy, it has longer legs than Lucy... but it is older which is strange," he added.
Haile Selassie, a paleontologist from the national museum in Addis Ababa, said "we have hundreds of pieces that have to be reconstructed and we haven't finished excavating."
The skeleton was the fourth ancient hominid to be found since Lucy, with others discovered in Ethiopia and in South Africa.
The researchers have yet to determine the species and sex of the latest discovery.
Big deal, now the oldest triped would have been something!
I've got a friend with a 3 legged cat. Probably not what you were hoping for.
Starvin Marvin
Lucy was declared to be a chimp back in 2000. Guys behind the times. This is yet another "oldest" human ancestor. They just keep on jumping out of the ground!
Opps, Now I see below that it's Helen Thomas. Thats what I get for not reading through the complete thread. You would think I'd of learned by now.
Making a point of being an ignorant fool, aren't you? Are the Leakey foundation researchers behind the times on primate/hominid research? Have they failed to read the latest Jack Chick comic book?
Er, maybe you should check out this story by the BBC. They describe Lucy as an "upright chimp." I have no opinion on whether Lucy might be the ancestor of any us but the evidence show that she had a tiny, ape-like brain and, despite a pelvic bone resembling those of humans, she likely spent much of her time in the the trees. According to this article from the University of Indiana:"The overall proportion of the brain case to the size of the face, the fact that there's no chin, that there is a procumbent--or protruding--jaw, in all of these ways the australopithecine skull resembles a chimpanzee skull..."In essence, Lucy more closely resembles a chimp that had the ability to walk on two legs.
I had a boss once, who was exactly like a chimp walking on two legs.
They found her aunt. No shit!
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But ignoring the oversimplified nature of the characterization, a "bipedal chimp" is part of a transitional sequence from something very like a chimpanzee to us. Yes, the skull is very chimp-like. Full bipedalism came before most of the cranial capacity increase. That doesn't mean the whole sequence didn't happen or that Lucy isn't part of it. Quite the opposite. Something very like a chimp, a last common ancestor of chimps and us, had descendants on one branch who moved into open country. (Or more likely, because of climate change the open country came to where they lived.) The pressures on this group were very different as a result of this. Bipedalism--efficient bipedalism to go long distances AND carry food or a stick--became important. Brains became more important than ever.
More on how the whole thing supports evolution here.
Well DAMN!
They found Robert Byrd!
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