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Human Fossils Predates Earlier Finds by 1.5 Million Year

Posted by Hemos on from the lost-in-time-lost-in-space dept.

Richard Finney writes "Reuters reports that French and Kenayn scientists have unearthed fossilized remains of mankinds' earliest know ancestor ahat predate previous discoveries by more than 1.5 million year. The remains belong to at least five individuals, both male and female."

5 of 12 comments (clear)

  1. History and the government by Chacham · · Score: 2

    Archaeologists works with millions of years, and the government works with millions of dollars. If something were found to be thousands of years older, or costs thousands of dollars more, it wouldn't be worth reporting. I guess the sheer greatness of these numbers overwhelms us so, that the effect is completely lost, as we couldn't possibly fathom it anyway.

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    Have you read my journal today?
  2. Sceptical. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

    The article isn't perfectly clear, but this sounds like more of the recent lamentable process of Science by Press Release, rather than the traditional Science by Peer Review. Announcing it to stir up excitement, eh? You're less likely to look a fool if you figure out exactly what you have, first.

    Other telling points -

    The field workers are "sure" they can find more remains related to this find. How could they possibly be "sure" of such a thing? Willpower does not produce fossils. Hard work doesn't even guarantee it. (Assuming no Piltdown-style fraud.)

    And the bit about the cat and the tree. Give me a break. It's not hard to understand why 6,000,000 year old remains might be scattered around a bit. Show me the code^w tooth marks.

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    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  3. Six.. or Five Million Years To Earth? by SEWilco · · Score: 2

    I'll really get interested if they find giant grasshoppers and a spaceship buried there.

  4. Is this on a pig too? by Life+Blood · · Score: 2

    Nebraska man, the first pre-human ancestor who was ever found was actually a pig. Go figure. Since then we've had several partial chimp skeletons and one chinese guys lunch (peking man) proclaimed our earliest ancestors. I'll see it when I believe it.

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    So far I've gotten all my Karma from telling people they are wrong... :)

  5. Hopefully they weren't ancient archeologists... by human+bean · · Score: 3
    That just happened to die at their site, and got covered again. It would be just our luck to find the improbable case, and then try to build science out of it.

    If the remains do turn out to match the strata dates, this could change estimated evolution rates quite a bit.

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