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.
EBUCK
I don't recall. Christopher Craft was a principal flight Controller, I remember that. And the FIRST astronaut was a chimpanzee. Chuck Yeager & many of the test pilots at Edwards AFB at the time didn't think much of the Space Program...'Spam in a can' they called it...'a suicide mission', with no need for the skills of a true Golden-Armed pilot.
With so many tens of thousands contributing to the Moon Shot, it's hard to establish a clear link with 'Creationists' as the sole actors. John Glenn was a Christian, though, and he got the nod for the first full 'orbit' of the Earth flight...DESPITE the fact that his sweet wife, Annie, who had a speech impediment and did NOT want to be on camera, REFUSED to allow POTUS Lyndon Johnson in her home for a 'courtesy visit' (photo op) on the day of the launch! MUCH to the chagrin of the NASA Public Affairs Office, which threatened to YANK Glenn from the flight if he didn't talk some SENSE into his wife!!
Yes, and how did that river run uphill to cut out the Canyon?
I keep remembering Immanuel Velikovsky.
Hmmm...
" I suggest "Bob". Let's call him Bob."
Bob, my flaming rear! This should be called "le froge".
Only one thing, did it have a white flag nearby?
I'm sure you do.
Not exactly. My point was that some kind of intrinsic variability on the order of hundreds of thousands of years aren't significant on much longer time scales. If the intrinsic variability is of the same order as the time scale, then you have a problem.
Ummm... You do know that the particular region of the US in question shifts quite a bit on a regular basis don't you? The angle and elevation of the land was nothing like what it is now when the river first started cutting a channel. And in fact there is some evidence there that these things changed as the channel was being cut. (Obviously, once the channel is started, the water generally won't leave it, even if it is slightly uphill in places.) That whole swath of the US is very active geologically.
Why do you waste our time with assertions that you could have falsified yourself with rudimentary research?
Wow!
That is deep, man.
"La grenouille" ;)
I am not sure, but I think somewhere I read that people taste like chicken.
From other reading I've done it seems that there is a great deal of evidence that isochron done carefully gives reliable age estimates. There is no obvious reason, for example, that so many independent age estimates should agree or that they would be consistent with other physical processes.
Well. I just know that when it is raining and the Sun is shining, it means Zeus is beating his wife.
And it will rain tomorrow.
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.
Anthropologists find what they want to find, even if they have to make it up.: Piltdowm man.
Heck no.
I am having a good time on this.
Do you have a link to the pig's tooth?
TIA
I was having such a good time, I didn't bother with someone else doing the same!
How dast you?
Just because Barney is a.... never mind.
LOL
I think I used to have an agenda.
But I forgot what it was.
I asked you not to do that!
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