Javanese Fossil Skull Provides New Insights into Ancient Humans

Scientific American ^ | 28 February 2002 | Sarah Graham

[PatrickHenry]

A routine construction dig has turned up a fossil skull that is giving scientists a better glimpse inside the head of our ancient predecessor, Homo erectus. According to a report published today in the journal Science, the find suggests that the H. erectus population that occupied the island of Java was isolated from other Asian populations and probably made only minimal genetic contributions to the ancestry of modern humans.

So far, more than 20 hominid skull fossils have been found at sites in Java. The latest, dubbed Sm 4 (see image), was recovered from the bed of the Solo River in central Java and is one of the largest yet discovered on the island. Hisao Baba of the University of Tokyo and his colleagues analyzed the skull, comparing it to previously discovered specimens. They found that Sm 4 shares certain characteristics, such as a flat top, with skulls dating to more than a million years ago. But Sm 4 also exhibits similarities to much younger fossils from Eastern Java--the shape of a nerve opening near the temple, for example. The researchers thus conclude that Sm 4 is an intermediary between earlier and later Javanese H. erectus. This suggests that the species lived on the island continuously for more than a million years, contrary to the hypothesis that distinct, consecutive migrations to the area occurred.

Sm 4 also presents the best look yet at a particular feature of H. erectus's head known as the cranial base, a bony shelf behind the eyes that helps support the brain. Using computer imaging to probe the skull's interior, the team found that its cranial base is surprisingly modern in being sharply angled, or flexed. This, the researchers note, suggests that the larger brains of modern humans evolved independent of changes to the support on which they rest.

[AndrewC]

Really? Why should it be so? Why are chickens and bats more similar to each other than to mosquitos,

"Why should it be so", is a metaphysical question. I don't know. But what causes the relationships between the mitrochondrial DNA that I have listed? Why should something about a bat be closer to a mosquito than that "same" something in a chicken compared to the mosquito? What is "closer" to a fish, a chicken or a bat?

[general_re]

"Why should it be so", is a metaphysical question. I don't know.

Not really. You can't conceive of any explanation for this?

But what causes the relationships between the mitrochondrial DNA that I have listed? Why should something about a bat be closer to a mosquito than that "same" something in a chicken compared to the mosquito? What is "closer" to a fish, a chicken or a bat?

You make it sound as though the difference between bat and mosquito is much closer than chicken and mosquito, or somehow comparable to the difference between chicken and bat. Comparing chicken and mosquito, there are nine analagous sections. Comparing bat and mosquito, there are 14 analagous sections. Compare bat and chicken, and there are 24 analagous sections, the longest of which is 867 bits and has an e-value of zero. Not "really small" - zero.

[AndrewC]

You make it sound as though the difference between bat and mosquito is much closer than chicken and mosquito,

The only reference I made was more similar and the comparisons. That is true at least for the most analogous section of each along with what you stated as to the sections. Your presentation is thus--

• chicken/mosquito 9
• bat/mosquito 14
• chicken/bat 24

You can see the bat is more "similar" to the mosquito than the chicken is. On top of that, the bat/mosquito longest is 594 bits with e-value e-165 with no gaps(12 gaps in the chicken/bat comparison) while the chicken/mosquito longest is 162 bits with e-value 2e-35.

You didn't even make an attempt to answer my question of fish, chicken, and bat.

[general_re]

So you decline to make any inference of a relationship between bat and chicken? You accepted a relationship between the type-III secretion mechanism and the bacterial flagella - although you declined to elaborate on what you thought that relationship might be, as I recall - and that didn't have an e-value of zero. Are you not willing to do at least that much here?

You didn't even make an attempt to answer my question of fish, chicken, and bat.

Sorry - I assumed that was a typo, that you accidentally substituted "fish" for "mosquito". Which fish did you have in mind?

[AndrewC]

So you decline to make any inference of a relationship between bat and chicken?

I made it a point to deny a familial relationship.

The fish question -- What so you think that Darwin would say? Normally, Darwinists are not reluctant to make a pronouncement on the flimsiest of evidence.

[AndrewC]

so = do

Duh!

[AndrewC]

You accepted a relationship between the type-III secretion mechanism and the bacterial flagella

No, what I accepted, was that a protein involved in the flagella was present in a bug(the plague if I recall correctly) which I believe has a type-III system. The protein was a hypothetical.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]