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New Fossil Sheds Light On Lucy's Family Tree

Posted by kdawson on from the desi-arnaz-moment dept.

I_am_sci_guy writes "A new fossil of an older, and presumably male, specimen of the same species as the famed Lucy indicates that A. afarensis may have walked and moved more like humans than was currently believed. The features of the unusually complete skeleton 'denote a nearly humanlike gait and ground-based lifestyle,' according to anthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie and his team, who found the specimen they call 'Big Man' and published preliminary results online today at PNAS (abstract; full text requires subscription). The article includes plenty of viewpoints dissenting from the conclusion that A. afarensis walked, and possibly ran, like modern humans do."

5 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. No subscription required by interactive_civilian · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ummm... the full text of the PNAS article does NOT require a subscription. Just click the "Full Text (PDF)" link.

    Or at least, I have access using no logins and accessing via a standard ISP in Thailand. :-/

    --
    "Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
  2. Oops. Free access for developing countries by interactive_civilian · · Score: 3, Informative

    Oops. I spoke too soon on that previous. PNAS offers free access to many developing countries, including Thailand. List here:

    http://www.pnas.org/misc/faq.shtml#developing

    Oh well... if anyone without access really wants to read the original paper, send me an email and I'll be happy to send you the PDF. Put something like "Slashdot - PNAS article PDF" in your subject line, please.

    --
    "Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
  3. Ostrich == dinosaur by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dinosaurs still exist. They're just called birds now.

  4. Re:In a stunning announcement by tsalmark · · Score: 2, Informative

    NO it is not. The funny thing about science is you can test your theories. The theories of Creationism all fail basic testing. Or are stated in such a way that they are not testable, therefore they are not science.

  5. Re:In a stunning announcement by tsalmark · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity has links to 50 some odd references and a few references to publications of tests including B. Bertotti, L. Iess and P. Tortora, "A test of general relativity using radio links with the Cassini spacecraft", Nature 425, 374 (2003).