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Oldest Human Fossil Fills In 2.8-Million-Year-Old Gap In Evolution

Posted by samzenpus on from the filling-in-the-story dept.

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."

6 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Damn... A win for the creationists by Maritz · · Score: 5, Funny

    This particular gap has become two gaps.

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    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    1. Re:Damn... A win for the creationists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Just like global warming the "scientists" keep changing the data and models. This is not science, science is only clear cut provable and reproducible common sense facts. How can anyone believe this is not just a huge scam from money-grabbing scientists.

    2. Re:Damn... A win for the creationists by Rei · · Score: 3, Funny

      And they made my coffee get cold too! Damn those "scientists"! I heard they're responsible for getting Firefly cancelled also.

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      You know when it's okay to shout fire in a crowded theatre? When it's on fire.
    3. Re:Damn... A win for the creationists by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, to a creationist, the fact that there are no intermediaries between you and your parents is proof that you are not related.

      To the religious fundamentalists, this is just more proof that Satan and his evil hoardes place false evidence to lure those whose faith is not solid away from Biblical truth.

      It is not just Satan who is planting all those evil evidence. Satan is being actively aided and abetted by the Omnipotent who is *not* removing the false evidence as soon as Satan does the planting. It am sure the Omniscient All Knowing God is just testing the faithful to find out how strong their faith is, which He already knows, by definition.

      Please give yourself a few minutes to let the brain return from that complex Yoga pose to return to normal.

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      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  2. Human origin by Buchenskjoll · · Score: 5, Funny

    So humans come from Afar?

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    -- Make America hate again!
  3. Woman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Scientists believe the find is of a woman. When asked how they knew that, a spokesperson said "well, it was open".