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Oldest Human Fossil Fills In 2.8-Million-Year-Old Gap In Evolution
GeekyKhan writes Archaeologists have unearthed a human jawbone—with teeth-- that is believed to be the oldest remains ever found from early humans. It belonged to the earliest specimen of Homo and dates back 2.8 million years. From NPR: "Although it's risky to say you've got the first or oldest of anything, Brian Villmoare, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is sure he and his team have the earliest specimen of Homo, the human genus. 'Oh, yeah, it definitely is,' he says. 'We were looking for it — and by miraculous chance we happened to find it.' Villmoare and an international team from the U.S. and Ethiopia found a lower jaw with five teeth in a region of Ethiopia called Afar. They were working a hill that was full of fossils. 'I was on the other side of the hill,' he recalls, 'and they said, 'Brian! Brian! Come over here.' The partial jawbone — just the left side – was lying on the ground, having eroded out of the hill. Several dating methods confirmed its age as roughly 400,000 years older than the previous record for a human-related fossil."
This particular gap has become two gaps.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
I think that species of homo needed a toothbrush.
Stop badgering Larry King for information!
Can someone link the new/latest chain of ancestors?
From NPR: "Although it's risky to say you've done it first Christopher Columbus, is sure he and his team have found westward passage to India"
'Oh, yeah, it definitely is,' he says. 'We were looking for it — and by miraculous chance we happened to find it.'
So humans come from Afar?
-- Make America hate again!
It is not claimed to be a new species, but the earlies known remains from a wellknown genus: Homo. It probably is from a very early Homo habilis.
Complete line isn't good enough: I'll need two fossils and the sex tape before I agree that a gap in ancestry has been filled.
You say that, but the faithheads won't be happy even with that. They'll probably just continue the "testing our faith" line, perhaps suggesting the devil put them there or something. Of course, they won't offer any proof for this but.. you know....look at my robes, hat.. come on...you can trust me.
Scientists believe the find is of a woman. When asked how they knew that, a spokesperson said "well, it was open".
And a marriage certificate.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I mean, I recently watched the video of the creation museum down south and they very explicitly state that humans and dinosaurs both co-habitated w/in the last 6,000 years, give or take a millennium. Cuz, you know, the Bible....
If I sound stupid, it's not me talking....
Just another Piltdown Man or Peking Man or Nebraska Man.
"[B]y miraculous chance we happened to find it." Sure, and I got a rare Poloraoid of a T-rex eating one of the Geico cave men I can sell you for cheap.
True. At this point, I say 'Welcome aboard!' to any of them who decide that maybe trying science would be cool after all; but it's not even worth the effort to try to convert through additional evidence.
I just wish that there were more who were willing to be honest about it: "I'm a 6-day young earth creationist because I'm interested in faith, not empiricism." isn't my cup of tea; but I'm not interested in fighting with you about it. "No, no, empirical evidence actually proves creationism and a young earth for reasons wholly aside from my interest in it doing so!!!" effectively assures arbitrary amounts of bullshit, intellectual dishonesty, and atrociously bad science standards. Not Good.
"We were looking for it — and by miraculous chance we happened to find it."
Than you probably didn't find it. You created the result you desired. If you're conducting research science, and you got the result you want. You probably did "science" wrong!
every time "missing gap" is used to discuss/describe evolution. We will never find all relevant fossils. Most intermediate iterations were never fossilized in the first place. The "fossil record" can never be complete. All we can do with the infinitesimally small percentage of fossils we do discover is use them to confirm, or refute, the theory of evolution as it currently exists, and, perhaps, revise the theory as required to account for new discoveries and observations. Science!
The USA is only 4X older than me...perspective
Before ISIS bulldozes it.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
True. At this point, I say 'Welcome aboard!' to any of them who decide that maybe trying science would be cool after all; but it's not even worth the effort to try to convert through additional evidence. I just wish that there were more who were willing to be honest about it: "I'm a 6-day young earth creationist because I'm interested in faith, not empiricism." isn't my cup of tea; but I'm not interested in fighting with you about it. "No, no, empirical evidence actually proves creationism and a young earth for reasons wholly aside from my interest in it doing so!!!" effectively assures arbitrary amounts of bullshit, intellectual dishonesty, and atrociously bad science standards. Not Good.
Perhaps that's one the god belief set is still so strongly entrenched in the face of mountains of contrary evidence.... their missionary conversion drive is so much stronger than ours.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Than you probably didn't find it.
You did "english" wrong too!
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
It just created two new gaps. Just ask Ken Ham.
That's a long way.
The correct answer is 42.
I'll need two fossils and the sex tape
And a marriage certificate.
Not to mention a USA birth certificate.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Did you drop out of 3rd grade or eat paint chips as a kid?
and the sex tape
It's on a wall of the cave on the other side of the hill.
Yes he did. Hence he goes around posting strawmen for others to knock down. Thinks it's clever.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
There was no evolution. Watch Kent Hovinds movies.
The human genus does not a human make. Homo Sapien is only about 250K years old. Therefore a 2.8 million year gap makes no sense. What a misleading title... fracking say what you mean. The Oldest HOMO Fossil was found. Not human.
I've dealt with creationists in the past. Their main argument basically boiled down to "staying the same." They see the unchanging, religious answer of "God did it" as strong because the answer never changes. If you ask now or ten years from now, the answer would still be "God did it." Science, on the other hand, is constantly changing. We see it as a strength because science gets new information and changes theories based on this information. They see it as a weakness, though. Ask a scientist a question now and ten years from now and you could get different answers.
Arguing with a creationist will never work because what we present as strengths, they will see as flaws. We have two completely different methods for determining how good an explanation is.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
how come it's always human ancestors we find and never ape or some other primates ancestors?
this fact alone strikes me as funny. and not funny ha ha, funny.
you'd think that just once, somebody would stumble upon one by mistake if nothing else. guess there is no money/glory in that so they're all ancestors to man.
The next glaciation (ice age) has already been postponed indefinitely. It won't happen until atmospheric CO2 levels drop below 250 ppm again which is a long time in the future unless we start actively removing it.
I got a fossil to sell you that bridges all kinds of gaps.
This is what drives me up the wall too. I'm an atheist, with an academic background in the natural sciences, but I have zero interest trying to disabuse people of their sincerely held superstitions - especially I can't honestly claim to be a paragon of rationality most of the time. What offends me as a scientist (of sorts) is when people actively lie and distort the scientific evidence in support of their mythology. "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
God created the Universe so I could make a living selling Intelligent Design textbooks. He also screwed it up quite a bit so I could follow with a line of Moronic Design texts. I am blessed.
What "homo" is, is a matter of arbitrary definition.
Want to make it the case that a fossil discovery is, or is not, the oldest example of a category you made up? No problem, just change your criteria to suit.
It's not anti-anything; it's science.