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1.4 Million-year-old Fossil Human Bone Closes Evolution Gap </div>
Scientific Computing ^ | 12/16/2013 - 5:36pm | University of Missouri-Columbia

Posted on 12/18/2013 10:11:55 AM PST by null and void


The styloid process allows the hand to lock into the wrist bones, giving humans the ability to apply greater amounts of pressure to the hand. This allows humans to make and use tools. Courtesy of University of Missouri

COLUMBIA, MO – Humans have a distinctive hand anatomy that allows them to make and use tools. Apes and other nonhuman primates do not have these distinctive anatomical features in their hands, and the point in time at which these features first appeared in human evolution is unknown. Now, a University of Missouri researcher and her international team of colleagues have found a new hand bone from a human ancestor who roamed the earth in East Africa approximately 1.42 million years ago. They suspect the bone belonged to the early human species, Homo erectus. The discovery of this bone is the earliest evidence of a modern human-like hand, indicating that this anatomical feature existed more than half a million years earlier than previously known.

"This bone is the third metacarpal in the hand, which connects to the middle finger. It was discovered at the 'Kaitio' site in West Turkana, Kenya," said Carol Ward, professor of pathology and anatomical sciences at MU. The discovery was made by a West Turkana Paleo Project team, led by Ward's colleague and co-author Fredrick Manthi of the National Museums of Kenya. "What makes this bone so distinct is that the presence of a styloid process, or projection of bone, at the end that connects to the wrist. Until now, this styloid process has been found only in us, Neandertals and other archaic humans."

The styloid process helps the hand bone lock into the wrist bones, allowing for greater amounts of pressure to be applied to the wrist and hand from a grasping thumb and fingers. Ward and her colleagues note that a lack of the styloid process created challenges for apes and earlier humans when they attempted to make and use tools. This lack of a styloid process may have increased the chances of having arthritis earlier, Ward said.

The bone was found near sites where the earliest Acheulian tools have appeared. Acheulian tools are ancient, shaped stone tools that include stone hand axes more than 1.6 million years old. Being able to make such precise tools indicates that these early humans were almost certainly using their hands for many other complex tasks as well, Ward said.

"The styloid process reflects an increased dexterity that allowed early human species to use powerful yet precise grips when manipulating objects. This was something that their predecessors couldn't do as well due to the lack of this styloid process and its associated anatomy," Ward said. "With this discovery, we are closing the gap on the evolutionary history of the human hand. This may not be the first appearance of the modern human hand, but we believe that it is close to the origin, given that we do not see this anatomy in any human fossils older than 1.8 million years. Our specialized, dexterous hands have been with us for most of the evolutionary history of our genus, Homo. They are – and have been for almost 1.5 million years – fundamental to our survival."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: creation; evolution; gagdadbob; onecosmosblog
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To: whattajoke; PapaNew

damnit - “equivalent to ASTROLOGY!”


61 posted on 12/18/2013 12:16:15 PM PST by whattajoke (Let's keep Conservatism real.)
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To: sickoflibs

Humans have been talking for quite a while.

We are indeed talking apes.


62 posted on 12/18/2013 12:16:36 PM PST by donmeaker
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To: Busko

Biology and paleontology and geology have nothing in the world to do with atheism or marxism or liberalism.

I’m not sure where you people get these ideas.


63 posted on 12/18/2013 12:17:48 PM PST by whattajoke (Let's keep Conservatism real.)
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To: Fuzz

Evolution? The scientific process?

LOL! Hardly.


64 posted on 12/18/2013 12:17:54 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males----the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: Busko

Everyone knows if you are going to create a human from a bone, it’s gotta be a rib bone.


65 posted on 12/18/2013 12:20:15 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: whattajoke

Evolutionary scientists have called Darwinism “the greatest engine of atheism devised by man” and said that evolution made it possible “to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist”. That’s why you hear such panicked squawking from the left when someone brings up the fact that evolution is a failed theory.


66 posted on 12/18/2013 12:23:51 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males----the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: CatherineofAragon

Your protestations noted, and with the preponderance of evidence available, rejected out of hand.


67 posted on 12/18/2013 12:23:56 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: donmeaker
I dont Apes can be toilet trained , can they?
68 posted on 12/18/2013 12:24:49 PM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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To: Westbrook

Evolution predicted that human and chimpanzee genetic material would be similar, before DNA structure was known.

It is. The one fewer count of human chromosomes is explained by two chimpanzee chromosomes adhering together. They are, through a sequence identifiable as a failed telomere.

Over 98% of chimpanzee chromosomes are sequence orders that are identical to sequence orders of the human chromosomes. There are 16 sequences of DNA that show scars of infection by a retrovirus that are commmon to human and chimpanzee.


69 posted on 12/18/2013 12:25:11 PM PST by donmeaker (The lessons of Weimar will soon be relearned.)
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To: CatherineofAragon

The circular nature of your statement is dizzying.


70 posted on 12/18/2013 12:26:17 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: whattajoke

If they don’t like one, and don’t like the other, they must be the same.

They are all in the class of “I don’t like that”.

The irony is they don’t like Marx because of his assertion that class was important.


71 posted on 12/18/2013 12:36:13 PM PST by donmeaker (The lessons of Weimar will soon be relearned.)
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To: Fuzz

Preponderance of evidence for evolution? Seriously? Nothing in the fossil record supports the crackpot theory.

Some people claim to believe in evolution because they want to appear intellectual; they don’t want to be seen as toothless inbreds who go to Nascar races. Others believe it because they haven’t investigated it and discovered that it’s a failed theory, a secular cult. And some cling to it for reasons like your own, which you’ve stated elsewhere. So I understand your unwillingness to budge on the subject. Evolution MUST be true, or some uncomfortable truths must be faced.


72 posted on 12/18/2013 12:36:19 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males----the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: sickoflibs

Are you toilet trained?

QED.


73 posted on 12/18/2013 12:36:46 PM PST by donmeaker (The lessons of Weimar will soon be relearned.)
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To: Fuzz
The circular nature of your statement is dizzying."

Funny you should say that. Darwin and his modern day apostles are masters of circular reasoning.

74 posted on 12/18/2013 12:40:44 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males----the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: CatherineofAragon
Quite a leap you've made there. Equivalent to, "A preacher called Christianity a bunch of hogwash" and therefore it is.

Okay, so you got a talking point from Anne Coulter about a Cornell professor who did indeed say the first quote you mined. My curiosity led me to sift thru the drudgery of creationist drivel to find the actual quote and its context.

Yes, William Provine (the singular scientist who said this, not the trumped up "scientistS" of your comment) said exactly what you said he said. But it is, of course, part of a much longer article about faith and science. It's a good read.

Regardless, I'm not sure how one guy's thoughts on the matter of faith and science reconciling lead to your odd conclusion that "evolution is a failed theory." Provine could believe that magic unicorns created us all yesterday, but that has no bearing on the fact of evolution.
75 posted on 12/18/2013 12:41:04 PM PST by whattajoke (Let's keep Conservatism real.)
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To: CatherineofAragon

I’m curious, what in your studies led you to NOT accept the fact of evolution? Be specific.


76 posted on 12/18/2013 12:43:09 PM PST by whattajoke (Let's keep Conservatism real.)
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To: whattajoke

Well, actually I didn’t get that quote from Ann Coulter ( I don’t keep up with her these days) but if she published it, good for her.

One person, huh? The slightest bit of research will pull up evolutionary scientists who are increasingly doubting the failed theory or admitting that it can’t be true.


77 posted on 12/18/2013 12:48:35 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males----the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: CatherineofAragon

“Preponderance of evidence for evolution?”

Yes. Volumes upon volumes upon, you get the idea.

“Seriously?”

Yes

“Nothing in the fossil record supports the crackpot theory.”

Patently, demonstrably false.

“Some people claim to believe in evolution because they want to appear intellectual; they don’t want to be seen as toothless inbreds who go to Nascar races. Others believe it because they haven’t investigated it and discovered that it’s a failed theory, a secular cult.”

Some people once claimed to believe that the flat Earth was the center of universe with the sun revolving around it. Whatever motivates some imaginary person to ‘believe’ the way they do has no bearing on what is actually true.

“And some cling to it for reasons like your own, which you’ve stated elsewhere. So I understand your unwillingness to budge on the subject.”

Cling is a loaded word. Implies an emotional attachment of some sort, which I’ve never personally felt to the subject, or any that I can recall.

“Evolution MUST be true, or some uncomfortable truths must be faced.”

Comfort also has nothing to do with what is true.


78 posted on 12/18/2013 12:49:34 PM PST by Fuzz
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To: donmeaker

That sounds like a chicken or egg first answer.


79 posted on 12/18/2013 12:54:41 PM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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To: CatherineofAragon

“Funny you should say that. Darwin and his modern day apostles are masters of circular reasoning.”

So you also have problems with Geometry it appears.


80 posted on 12/18/2013 12:55:53 PM PST by Fuzz
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