Astonishing Skull Found in Africa

BBC ^ | 10 July, 2002 | Ivan Noble

[Mr.Clark]

It's the most important find in living memory.

It was found in the desert in Chad by an international team and is thought to be approximately seven million years old.

"I knew I would one day find it... I've been looking for 25 years," said Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers, France.

Scientists say it is the most important discovery in the search for the origins of humankind since the first Australopithecus "ape-man" remains were found in Africa in the 1920s.

The newly discovered skull finally puts to rest any idea that there might be a single "missing link" between humans and chimpanzees, they say.

Messy evolution

Analysis of the ancient find is not yet complete, but already it is clear that it has an apparently puzzling combination of modern and ancient features.

Henry Gee, senior editor at the scientific journal Nature, said that the fossil makes it clear how messy the process of evolution has been.

"It shows us there wasn't a nice steady progression from ancient hominids to what we are today," he told BBC News Online.

"It's the most important find in living memory, the most important since the australopithecines in the 1920s.

"It's amazing to find such a wonderful skull that's so old," he said.

What is the skull's significance?

The skull is so old that it comes from a time when the creatures which were to become modern humans had not long diverged from the line that would become chimpanzees.

There were very few of these creatures around relative to the number of people in the world today, and only a tiny percentage of them were ever fossilised.

So despite all the false starts, failed experiments and ultimate winners produced by evolution, the evidence for what went on between 10 and five million years ago is very scarce.

Grandparent, great uncle, great aunt?

There will be plenty of debate about where the Chad skull fits into the incomplete and sketchy picture researchers have drawn for the origins of the human species.

"A find like this does make us question the trees people have built up of human evolution," Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum told the BBC.

Sahelanthropus tchadensis, as the find has been named, may turn out to be a direct human ancestor or it may prove to be a member of a side branch of our family tree.

The team which found the skull believes it is that of a male, but even that is not 100% clear.

"They've called it a male individual, based on the strong brow ridge, but it's equally possible it's a female," said Professor Stringer.

Future finds may make the whole picture of human evolution clearer.

"We've got to be ready for shocks and surprises to come," he said.

The Sahelanthropus has been nicknamed Toumai, a name often given to children born in the dry season in Chad.

Full details of the discovery appear in the journal Nature.

[RobRoy]

Well, I don't know how old it is, but it obviously existed in a place or time where quality dental maintenance was hard to come by.

[RobRoy]

So, now you're slamming church-goers without evidence! And what about Mosque-goers, or do I have to be Taxi-specific?

[general_re]

Well, I don't know how old it is, but it obviously existed in a place or time where quality dental maintenance was hard to come by.

In other words, it's an Englishman who died about 5 to 10 years ago...

[O Neill]

...dental maintenance was hard to come by.

Clearly prior to the age of decay-preventive dentifricie used in a conscientious program of oral hygiene and regular, professional care...

[MissAmericanPie]

Is this is every bit as important as the pigs tooth?

[EBUCK]

No, I have evidence I'm just not going to show it to you. You're going to have to trust me. LOL

EBUCK

[DaveyB]

To you a pig's tooth but to real Scientists (those highpriests of humanism funded with tax money) it's NEBRASKA MAN.

[Phaedrus]

Har! The original article carries with it a picture. The "guy" has more brow ridge that he has brain. Some days I feel like that, too!

[ContentiousObjector]

It never fails to blow my mind that the most advanced society in the history of civilization can suffer from such a culture of anti-Intellectualism and blind ignorance,

Friends of mine in Asia are amazed that Americans have indoor plumbing, they can't fathom how a society that is so emotionally backwards put a man on the moon.

[EBUCK]

The reasons most, if not all ICR, arguments are discarded are many. Including the absolute scientific refutation of most, if not all, arguments they have put forth as well as the dubious nature of their credentials. Despite these refutations they continually refuse to retract their flawed data, evidence, theories choosing to keep spewing their sewage to the ignorant and gullible as gosple. Case in point...The Texas Dinosaur/"Man Track" Controversy

EBUCK

[Phaedrus]

In a pig's tooth!...er...In a pig's eye!...er...just a sec, here...Where are my notes?!?!?

[Fithal the Wise]

"You'd like it better if they stated the age with certainty, based on the fact they once read a book of fairy tales?"

without certainty it remains an unproven fairy tail hypothesis.

[DaveyB]

It never fails to blow my mind that the most advanced society in the history of civilization can suffer from such a culture of anti-Intellectualism and blind ignorance…

You’re right! When will we look and see that most of the inventions and scientific advances in history came from Bible believing Christians obeying a dominion command. When will acknowledge that the Constitution was authored and signed by Bible believing Christians. When we will we see that when a society departs from God they soon loose his blessings and become uncivilized. Why even your screen name reflects a great Christian man – when will open our eyes and see?

[Pitchfork]

Creationism (in the conventional sense that God created all currently know species) is inconsistent with the bible! Why...

1) God gave man free will
2) If God created the world (and all it's creatures) but gave man free will then he gave over control of the future of said world to man (or man really doens't have free will in which case everything is predestined). Therfore man could destroy the world --i.e. eliminate enough species that the eco-system would no longer function through nuclear war, environmental collapse ect. BUT...
3) God said HE would destroy the world, which he couldn't do if man had already done it.

How can we escape from this.

1) God created a universe of natural laws
2) the natural laws of the universe (some we know some we don't) govern the 'system'.
3) one manifestation of the system of laws is the process of genetic mutation and evolution
4) All organism have free will
5) The resiliance of the system of natural laws makes it impossible for any single organism (including man) to 'end the world' before God chooses to. Even a nuclear holocaust wouldn't kill every living thing or person on Earth.
6) even if only a limited sample of organisms survived a cataclysm, the beauty of evolution will ensure that the world will one day be reborn --new species will evolve (until such time as God wants to end things).

Believe in God (if you want) but please don't limit his power to the creation of a few million species. Credit him with creating a perfectly self-regulating system capabale of infinite speciation!

[PatrickHenry]

... they can't fathom how a society that is so emotionally backwards put a man on the moon.

Some of the same people in this thread who are screeching loudest about the "heresy" of a pre-Adamic hominid are probably among those who claim the moon-landings were a fraud.

[DaveyB]

...most, if not all, arguments they have put forth as well as the dubious nature ...

You mean like the aforementioned nebraska man...err pigs tooth. Or maybe circular reasoning used for dating or perhaps the ontogeny recapitalization hoax.

[EBUCK]

Didn't anyone see this? I though it was so funny when I wrote it....guess humor is in the hands of the typist...

EBUCK

[PatrickHenry]

I thought you meant Barney Frank.

[DaveyB]

...Believe in God (if you want) but please don't limit his power to the creation of a few million species...

Limit God - may it never be. Believe God's revelation definitely.

Many theologians for centuries have wrestled with the sovereignty of God- freewill of man issue. I cannot do better than they have, but just because I don’t understand something does not mean it is false. The election of Bill Clinton comes to mind – I don’t understand how it could have happened but I know it happened.

[AndrewC]

That is not relevant when I say that information was corroborated from other sources. In the particular case to which I refer it had to do with a measurement of genomes. I produced two sources, one was ICR that gave a measurement for the size of the human genome in relation to other creatures. The ICR post had one reference to an amoeba that the other reference, IIRC from Genome News Network, did not have. I was threatened to produce evidence apart from the ICR for this amoeba. The evidence was provided but the exchange adequately displays the treatment of ICR information. I consider the Talk Origins information flawed secondary information, yet the Darwininians find no problem posting links to T.O. which contains interpretations of information put in serious doubt by the source of that info.