Slashdot Mirror
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.
So far they're calling this an early H. habilis. That may change with further study or it may get a subspecies designator, but for now at least, it's H. habilis.
You know when it's okay to shout fire in a crowded theatre? When it's on fire.
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.
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.
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....
I recently saw some video series about Ancient Aliens. Cus, you know, the Bible.....
Guess we can't please everyone.
Be seeing you...
Satan has been around for a long time, he is wise, he knows how to use man's own hubris to condemn him
Surely, the writers of the paper will receive their earthly glory, but is it worth spending an eternity writhing in the lake of fire, I should say not.
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.
On the other hand, humans and dinosaurs cohabit right now. I'm looking at a Cyanocitta cristata (bluejay) out my back window right now.
Yes, bluejays are dinosaurs, at least since they moved Aves into Dinosauria.
Which makes the fundies right for the wrong reasons. It would drive them even more crazy if you pointed out that birds evolved from dinosaurs, eh?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
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
You do know the difference between excavation and an experiment, right.....
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.
Archeology is more like looking for the lost TV remote... "We were looking for it — and by miraculous chance we happened to find it." after flipping the couch over and shaking it for the fifth time. These aren't result you make happen by not doing it right.
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
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'
I'm not sure where I'm going after I die, but I'm glad I'm not going to the same place as the people who tell me I'm going to hell.
Mark Twain (para)
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
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.
Which is backed up by that documentary which clearly shows stone age families having a dinosaur as a pet and using various animals as household appliances. Apparently, they also loved saying "Yabba-Dabba-Doo."
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
My wife's parents own a cockatoo. That thing is definitely dinosaur. On a related note, the idea of a 10+ foot tall cockatoo is frightening!
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
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 guess that means that humans have ridden on dinosaurs then. Wild ride on a big ostrich.
Wow.
Stunning ignorance and arrogance (from someone who cannot find the shift key).
Excavations of the ancestor of other primate lineages are quite common.
All you have to do is type "primate fossils" in Google or Bing and be buried in links to same.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
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."
There is a fairly large population of feral turkeys near where I live and work - the adult males are slightly terrifying. Every time I see one I think of the dinosaurs who eat Wayne Knight in "Jurassic Park". Only with [more] feathers.
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.