Posted on 07/10/2002 11:51:16 AM PDT by 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.
The real difference is that science polices itself and exposes errors/hoaxes/lies through peer review. ICR has a diferent system...if it can create doubt, counter evolutionist theory, or garner support is will be used without regard to fact, evidence, or peer review. ICR is not a scientific institution as it claims. Its staff is chock full of frauds and liars whose sole purpose are to spread unfounded propoganda.
EBUCK
EBUCK
Yes! It's the devil's work!!
I assume you're referring to Haeckel's biogenetic law. It's been dead for a long time. see history of biogenetic law
It wasn't a hoax. It was a flawed theory. There's a big difference. Piltdown man was a hoax.
I obviously cannot say that scientists are saints (good choice of wording if I do say so myself) but compared to the ICR staff they are certainly on the sainthood "alternate" squad and just waiting for an injury.
EBUCK
Well it's a good thing we have you, the truth detector, why with that kind of logic the debate is over -- who dare argue with an ex cathedra statement of omniscience like that.
Not that it matters, but...When man went to the moon who was the head of NASA? And what was his faith? Me thinks you speak too soon.
No doubt. And well put to boot. The thing that tips the scales is evidence. Either you got or you don't. Science has it. And despite the dogma in many scientific circles the peer review process always seems to get to the bottom of things, AKA, the truth.
EBUCK
Consider this:
c. 2725 B.C. - Imhotep in Egypt considered the first medical doctor
c. 2540 B.C. - Pyramids of Egypt constructed
c. 2000 B.C. - Chinese discovered magnetic attraction
c. 700 B.C. - Greeks discovered electric attraction produced by rubbing amber
c. 600 B.C. - Anaximander discovered the ecliptic (the angle between the plane of the earth's rotation and the plane of the solar system)
c. 600 B.C. - Thales proposed that nature should be understood by replacing myth with logic; that all matter is made of water
c. 585 B.C. - Thales correctly predicted solar eclipse
c. 530 B.C. - Pythagoras developed mathematical theory
c. 500 B.C. - Anaximenes introduced the ideas of condensation and rarefaction
c. 450 B.C. - Anaxagoras proposed the first clearly materialist philosophy - the universe is made entirely of matter in motion
c. 370 B.C. - Leucippus and Democritus proposed that matter is made of small, indestructible particles
c. 300 B.C. - Euclid wrote "Elements", a treatise on geometry
c. 300 B.C. - Aristarchus proposed that the earth revolves around the sun; calculated diameter of the earth
c. 300 B.C. - The number of volumes in the Library of Alexandria reached 500,000
c. 220 B.C. - Archimedes made discoveries in mathematics and mechanics
c. 150 A.D. - Ptolemy studied mathematics, science, geography; proposed that the earth is the center of the solar system
190 - Chinese mathematicians calculated pi to five decimal places
271 - Chinese mathematicians invented the magnetic compass
335 - Aristotle established the Lyceum; studied philosophy, logic, science
415 - A mob of rioters burned down the Library of Alexandria, and much of the recorded knowledge of the western world was lost
450-1000 - the "Dark Ages" in Europe
They need to look for eyebrow pencil above brow ridge.
That is most difinitive.
And yet it remained in college textbooks as late as the mid 90's. And so it was a fraud and a hoax perpetrated on students for decades because it supported the orthodoxy of evolution.
That's partly because they have been caught 'quotemining' numerous times. As has Behe (at least once), as I pointed out here.
I can't take people who engage in that sort of behavior seriously, except as potential criminals and con artists to keep an eye on.
EBUCK
EBUCK
I donno. But amber can be used to generate static electricity, so there's an obvious connection.
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