It is a well developed and established science. The scientists are well established, long lived in their practice and considered with esteem among their peers.
08.04.2010
Sensationelle Hominiden-Funde
Researchers at the University of Zurich (click here) and colleagues from the University of the Witwatersrand have discovered a new hominid species in South Africa: Australopithecus sediba is 1.9 million years old and shows characteristics of both the genus Australopithecus and the genus Homo. The find is the discussion of the human family tree stimulate again.
by Christopher Joyce
...Now, they've lifted the veil, (click here) revealing the fossilized remains of five creatures who lived 1.8 million years ago.
, a professor of anatomy at Stony Brook University who was not involved in the research, is impressed, particularly with the skull of one adult male. "That skull is incredible," he says. "It's got to be one of the most complete skulls ever discovered in the fossil record of human evolution."
Having bones from five different skeletons is amazing, too. Team member , a senior researcher at the Anthropological Institute in Switzerland, says that is unique this far back in time.
"For the first time, we can see a population. We only had individuals before," she says, referring to the isolated bones of individuals found in Africa from the early Pleistocene — about 2 million years ago.
Having a "population" to examine meant the scientists could look for similarities in the bones that would help characterize what this entire species was like. What puzzled them, though, were the big differences they found in the bones — a lot of variation from individual to individual, and an unusual mosaic of features in some. One adult male, for example, seemed to have almost a grab bag of features — a small brain case, big protruding jaw, and giant teeth. The Dmanisi Five looked like a mix of species.
But Ponce de Leon's colleague, , notes that all five apparently died within centuries of each other in the same place. They had to be the same species, he concluded. "We are pretty sure that the variation that we see is ... within a species," Zollikofer says, "a single evolving lineage."
Finding a human ancestral species with a lot of
physical variety from one individual to the next poses another puzzle.
The conventional wisdom about early human evolution has it that there
were several species that arose in Africa: Homo rudolfensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and
maybe even more. Now this new discovery suggests that a single species,
exemplified by the Dmanisi Five, can have more physical variety than
previously thought. In fact, the team found as much variation among
modern humans and among chimps and among the Dmanisi Five as there is
among those ancient African fossils that have long been thought to be
different species.
And that might mean, Zollikofer says, that there weren't numerous early human species. Maybe there was just one....
08.04.2010
Sensationelle Hominiden-Funde
Researchers at the University of Zurich (click here) and colleagues from the University of the Witwatersrand have discovered a new hominid species in South Africa: Australopithecus sediba is 1.9 million years old and shows characteristics of both the genus Australopithecus and the genus Homo. The find is the discussion of the human family tree stimulate again.
, a professor of anatomy at Stony Brook University who was not involved in the research, is impressed, particularly with the skull of one adult male. "That skull is incredible," he says. "It's got to be one of the most complete skulls ever discovered in the fossil record of human evolution."
Having bones from five different skeletons is amazing, too. Team member , a senior researcher at the Anthropological Institute in Switzerland, says that is unique this far back in time.
"For the first time, we can see a population. We only had individuals before," she says, referring to the isolated bones of individuals found in Africa from the early Pleistocene — about 2 million years ago.
Having a "population" to examine meant the scientists could look for similarities in the bones that would help characterize what this entire species was like. What puzzled them, though, were the big differences they found in the bones — a lot of variation from individual to individual, and an unusual mosaic of features in some. One adult male, for example, seemed to have almost a grab bag of features — a small brain case, big protruding jaw, and giant teeth. The Dmanisi Five looked like a mix of species.
But Ponce de Leon's colleague, , notes that all five apparently died within centuries of each other in the same place. They had to be the same species, he concluded. "We are pretty sure that the variation that we see is ... within a species," Zollikofer says, "a single evolving lineage."
Finding a human ancestral species with a lot of
physical variety from one individual to the next poses another puzzle.
The conventional wisdom about early human evolution has it that there
were several species that arose in Africa: Homo rudolfensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and
maybe even more. Now this new discovery suggests that a single species,
exemplified by the Dmanisi Five, can have more physical variety than
previously thought. In fact, the team found as much variation among
modern humans and among chimps and among the Dmanisi Five as there is
among those ancient African fossils that have long been thought to be
different species.And that might mean, Zollikofer says, that there weren't numerous early human species. Maybe there was just one....
