Posted on 06/27/2008 2:45:44 PM PDT by blam
Balkan caves, gorges were pre-Neanderthal haven
Fri Jun 27, 2008 11:25am EDT
By Ljilja Cvekic
BELGRADE (Reuters Life!) - A fragment of a human jaw found in Serbia and believed to be up to 250,000 years old is helping anthropologists piece together the story of prehistoric human migration from Africa to Europe.
"This is the earliest evidence we have of humans in the area," Canada's Winnipeg University anthropology professor Mirjana Roksandic told Reuters.
The fragment of a lower jaw, complete with three teeth, was discovered in a small cave in the Sicevo gorge in south Serbia.
"It is a pre-Neanderthal jaw that we believe is between 130,000 to 250,000 years old," said Belgrade University archaeology professor Dusan Mihailovic, head of the team studying the jaw.
"It could help us explain better the human evolution and implications of movements of the population and culture across a large territory," he said.
Anthropologists believe Africa was the birthplace of man, who then migrated northwards into the Middle East and Europe, possibly in reaction to climate changes.
During the periodic ice ages northern Europe would have been covered in ice, so the theory is these early humans stayed in the easier climate of southern Europe.
The jaw might belong to homo erectus, the first type of human to walk upright, who appeared in Africa 1.8 million years ago and was the precursor of both modern man, or homo sapiens, and the separate species of Neanderthal man.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
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Thanks Blam. |
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Totally amazing the conclusions that can be drawn from a ‘A fragment of a human jaw found in Serbia’.
Just Umma and me
And Mowgli makes three
We’re happy in
My Balkan Haven
A small crevasse
to hide my ass
when tigers loom
a little nest
to get some rest
from Serbian doom
we’re happy in
my Balkan haven
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2986383/posts
http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/new-human-neanderthal-evolution-110505.htm
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