Oldest "Human" Skeleton Found

Oldest "Human" Skeleton Found--Disproves "Missing Link"
Move over, Lucy. And kiss the missing link goodbye.

Scientists today announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor. The find reveals that our forebears underwent a previously unknown stage of evolution more than a million years before Lucy, the iconic early human ancestor specimen that walked the Earth 3.2 million years ago.

The fossil puts to rest the notion, popular since Darwin's time, that a chimpanzee-like missing link—resembling something between humans and today's apes—would eventually be found at the root of the human family tree. Indeed, the new evidence suggests that the study of chimpanzee anatomy and behavior—long used to infer the nature of the earliest human ancestors—is largely irrelevant to understanding our beginnings. news.nationalgeographic.com...

Once again, Ethiopia provides insight into the beginnings of Human existence. This singular discovery is certain to start arguments disputing Darwinian progression anew.

Another article on that subject in Time:

www.time.com...

Sure, it's a tricky subject, but the find seems to support evolution imho.

In other words, they found my mother in law. This is actually really exciting, and I look forward to read more about it!

Oldest "Human" Skeleton Found--Disproves "Missing Link"

Umm... Probably any 5 year old could tell that is a monkey...

Scientists today announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor.

Oh, since its "scientists" it must be true

Is it a human, or a human ancestor?

"This find is far more important than Lucy," said Alan Walker, a paleontologist from Pennsylvania State University who was not part of the research.

Oh, since "Alan Walker" says its "far more important than Lucy" IT MUST BE!

While important, however, none of those earlier fossils are nearly as revealing as the newly announced remains, which in addition to Ardi's partial skeleton include bones representing at least 36 other individuals

The, "scientists" are 100% positive all the bones are from the same "species?"

They didn't swap bones at all did they? If they did or didn't...how would we know?

"All of a sudden you've got fingers and toes and arms and legs and heads and teeth,"

None of them belong to pigs...right?

"That allows you to do something you can't do with isolated specimens," White said. "It allows you to do biology."

No, it just gets your name published in articles and books...

...whatever

Ardipithecus's contains a special small bone inside a tendon, passed down from more primitive ancestors, that keeps the divergent toe more rigid.

And these "primitive ancestors" would be...?

The bone was lost in the lineages of chimps and gorillas.

Which "specie(s)" was the last to "have" this remarkable bone?

First we have this bone, then we don't...

Did they say whether Lucy had this bone at all?

As a result Ardi would have walked on her palms as she moved about in the trees—more like some primitive fossil apes than like chimps and gorillas.

Mis-using of words, lol, you gotta love it, would it be of no use, to use more proper wording, such as something like this...

As a result Ardi could have walked on her palms as she moved about in the trees—more like some primitive fossil apes probably could of done than like chimps and gorillas of today.

"What Ardi tells us is there was this vast intermediate stage in our evolution that nobody knew about," said Owen Lovejoy, an anatomist at Kent State University in Ohio, who analyzed Ardi's bones below the neck.

Yup, the addition, and subtraction of a special foot bone, lol

"It changes everything."

whatever

But it took 15 years before the research team could fully analyze and publish the skeleton

It took them 15 years...

because the fossils were in such bad shape.

Yet remarkably were able to distinguish, with "100%" certaintity that there were 36 individuals?

I still don't know whether or not they mis-matched any bones at all.

After Ardi died, her remains apparently were trampled down into mud by hippos and other passing herbivores. Millions of years later, erosion brought the badly crushed and distorted bones back to the surface.

...hypothesizing at its best, lol

The team also found some 6,000 animal fossils and other specimens that offer a picture of the world Ardi inhabited: a moist woodland very different from the region's current, parched landscape. In addition to antelope and monkey species associated with forests, the deposits contained forest-dwelling birds and seeds from fig and palm trees.

Wait!!!, there were monkey's back then???

Are these "fig and palm trees" the same trees we have today, or...

Males and female specimens are also close to each other in body size.

Just curious, what was the ratio of males/females out of the 36 some creatures?

Lovejoy sees these changes as part of an epochal shift in social behavior: Instead of fighting for access to females, a male Ardipithecus would supply a "targeted female" and her offspring with gathered foods and gain her sexual loyalty in return.
To keep up his end of the deal, a male needed to have his hands free to carry home the food. Bipedalism may have been a poor way for Ardipithecus to get around, but through its contribution to the "sex for food" contract, it would have been an excellent way to bear more offspring. And in evolution, of course, more offspring is the name of the game

Dang... all this from a pile of bones eh...lol

But this is just the beginning of the story

...whatever, lol

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck



Here is the MIND FREAK THEY BEEN RESEARCHING ARDI SINCE 1994??????????????????????????????SMH LOOK IT UP 15 YRS LATER

Originally posted by Solofront

But this is just the beginning of the story

...whatever, lol

You seem to have difficulties with this story. However, through the miracle of the internet...you can actually contact the project co-director, Tim White, at the email on this link:ib.berkeley.edu...

How about you send him a copy of your missive, and give him the opportunity to address your concerns? Then post the results up here for us interested folks to review.

Or are you afraid he's going to make a monkey of you?

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck

Or are you afraid he's going to make a monkey of you?

Oh my goodness... that was a good one!!!

Anyhow, did everybody miss the end of this documentary? Where it stated that evolution is not a working theory anymore?

What has made sense to me for many years now has finally been said out loud on tv by a living, walking and talking scientists.

Evolution is NOT true!!

Stari

Originally posted by Stari

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
Or are you afraid he's going to make a monkey of you?

Oh my goodness... that was a good one!!!

I rather thought so...thanks for the nod. But I cannot help but notice that solofront is being tardy with his homework. The contact is there...he can ask his questions. If he gets no response...well even that is worth reporting, n'est-ce pas?

For the people who talk about how it took 15 years. First off, excavation of delicate fossils alone can take YEARS. It took 3 years alone just to get ardi out of the ground.

Then it took another several years, to decipher ardi while still in some dirt because the skeleton was too fragile to remove, so they had to find ways to analyze it as it was.

Then they have to piece it together. Then scientists go over these things mm by mm. It is the most scrupulous work you will ever see.

There is nothing quick about archeology. My bff in high school started to major in it. But he switched to geology. Because you have to be able to tolerate sitting for weeks or months, crouching in bad weather, brushing away at dirt with a paintbrush. And this was one of the most laid back patient guys I knew.

You don't rip these skeletons out of the ground, put them together like jenga blocks and go: wa la!

I love how solo front (someone who probably is not in the field of archeology or any science for that matter) acts as if "Scientists" didn't dedicate their whole entire lives to learn about science. He acts as if he knows more than scientists re: their particular field.

He's right of course. Scientists don't study their entire lives to gain what could only be called excessive knowledge in their field. They didn't have good grades in school. After 15 years of research there is no way they would have learned anything. They aren't skilled in any way whatsoever. He's right.

Why don't you send your spiel to the people at the Smithsonian. Go ahead, tell them they cannot gain any knowledge from bones. Tell them that you cannot piece together a few million year old skeleton. Tell them their advanced equipment is just a fancy paper weight!

Take a good long look at that LCD in front of you and tell me scientists are idiots.

Ignorance is bliss I guess.

Public release date: 17-Dec-2009

Science's breakthrough of the year: Uncovering 'Ardi'
Fossil of early hominid heads the journal's list of top 10 scientific advances of 2009
This press release is available in Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish.

The research that brought to light the fossils of Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia, has topped Science's list of this year's most significant scientific breakthroughs. The monumental find predates "Lucy,"—previously the most ancient partial skeleton of a hominid on record—by more than one million years, and it inches researchers ever-closer to the last common ancestor shared by humans and chimpanzees.

Science and its publisher, AAAS, the nonprofit science society, recognize the Ardipithecus ramidus fossils, including the partial skeleton named "Ardi," as 2009's Breakthrough of the Year. They also identify nine other important scientific accomplishments from this past year in a top ten list, appearing in a special news feature in the journal's 18 December 2009 issue.

The Ardipithecus research "changes the way we think about early human evolution, and it represents the culmination of 15 years of painstaking, highly collaborative research by 47 scientists of diverse expertise from nine nations, who carefully analyzed 150,000 specimens of fossilized animals and plants," said Dr. Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science, in a related editorial.

Back in October, an international team of scientists offered this first comprehensive, peer-reviewed description of Ardipithecus. This research appeared in a special issue of Science, published on 2 October 2009 (www.sciencemag.org...). Until then, the fossil record contained only scant evidence of other hominids older than "Lucy."

After analyzing the skull, teeth, pelvis, hands, feet, and other bones, they determined that Ardipithecus possessed a mix of "primitive" traits, shared with its predecessors—the apes of the Miocene epoch—and "derived" traits, which it shared exclusively with later hominids.

However, many of its traits do not appear in modern-day African apes. One surprising conclusion, therefore, is that it is likely that the African apes have evolved extensively since we shared that last common ancestor, which thus makes living chimpanzees and gorillas poor models for the last common ancestor and for understanding our own evolution since that time.

www.eurekalert.org...

Interesting that this is the science breakthrough of the year in this field..