Four Individuals Caught in 'Death Trap' May Shed Light on Human Ancestors

April 19, 2011 | Ann Gibbons

[SunkenCiv]

...The four hominin individuals died when they fell into a "death trap" in a cave about 2 million years ago at Malapa, South Africa, according to new dates reported by Berger... In addition to the articulated partial skeletons of a youth and an older female unveiled last year in Science, the team members reported the discovery of bones of an 18-month-old infant and at least one other adult. This means they are getting a good look at Au. sediba's development from infancy to old age... Berger and members of his team sketched a quick portrait of Au. sediba, who lived at the mysterious time right after the emergence of our genus Homo between 2 million to 3 million years ago... The trove of well-preserved bones includes clavicles, shoulder blades, and ribs as well as a complete skull, hand, foot, and two pelvises. The researchers called it an australopithecine -- extinct members of the human family that lived 1 million to 4 million years ago in Africa -- because it had a small brain the size of an ape's, and its "overall body plan" was like that of an australopithecine, team member Darryl de Ruiter of Texas A&M University in College Station said in a talk. It had long arms and a primitive thorax and heel like an ape, for example. But the fossils also show some surprisingly modern traits usually found only in members of our own genus, Berger said. Two pelvises, in particular, are capacious and elongated in a way that looks quite Homo-like. In his talk on the fossils, Berger ticked off a list of other traits that were modern, including smaller teeth, short fingers, and an elongated thumb...

[SunkenCiv]

Ann Gibbons wrote it?!? Bwa ha ha!

• Brain Parts Found in Ancient Human Ancestor [ Australopithecus sediba ]
• "Key" Human Ancestor Found: Fossils Link Apes, First Humans?
• Pictures: New Human Ancestor Fossils Found
• Missing link between man and apes found (New skeleton found)

[SunkenCiv]

Whole communities of ape-like creatures may have been killed in volcanic disasters that struck East Africa 18 million years ago... the once active volcano Kisingiri... contained fossils of what is believed to be a forerunner of humans called Proconsul... they may have been caught by a pyroclastic flow... the abundance of the hominoid fossils may represent "death assemblages" -- whole populations wiped out simultaneously by "glowing cloud" eruptions. [Monday, May 3, 1999, "Early volcano victims discovered"]

New chronology for the
Early Miocene mammalian faunas
of Kisingiri, Western Kenya
R. E. Drake, J. A. Van Couvering,
M. H. Pickford, G. H. Curtis
& J. A. Harris
Journal of the Geological Society; 1988; v. 145; issue.3; p. 479-491

New total-fusion K-Ar ages indicate that all of the fossiliferous formations that make up the lower part of the Early Miocene Kisingiri sequence in western Kenya at Rusinga Island, Mfwangano Island, and Karungu were deposited during an interval of less than 0.5 million years at c. 17.8 Ma ago. This contrasts markedly with K-Ar ages previously published from these detrital-tuffaceous formations, which suggested that they were deposited over an interval of as much as 7 million years between 23 and 16 Ma, overlapping the age-ranges of all other East African Early Miocene sites including Koru, Songhor, Napak, Bukwa, Loperot, Muruarot and Buluk. In addition, the analytical problems revealed by the new Kisingiri results cast doubt on biotite ages which provide dating for the most important sites. Thus, the strong differences between the Kisingiri fauna and those of Koru, Sonhor and Napak, long held to be due to ecology because of the apparent overlap in ages, may actually be due to a difference in time. If this view of the geochronology is correct, it may now be possible to identify adaptive trends and evolutionary succession in the East African Early Miocene faunas.

---

The Ape in the Tree: An Intellectual and Natural History of Proconsul by Alan Walker and Pat Shipman other hc edition

---

[decimon]

Are you missing a link? If so then here’s one: http://www.archaeologydaily.com/news/201104246483/Four-Individuals-Caught-in-Death-Trap-May-Shed-Light-on-Human-Ancestors.html

[SunkenCiv]

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/assets_c/2011/04/sn-a.sediba-thumb-800xauto-5973.jpg

[GeronL]

They think this weird sounding hominid was a short branch on the family tree do they?

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·

[SunkenCiv]

Well, that’s one of my better intercourse-ups.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/04/four-individuals-caught-in-death.html?ref=hp

[decimon]

What they’re not telling is that neanderthals set the trap for those four.

[SunkenCiv]

Sediba, sediba, sediba, that’s all folks!

[Inyo-Mono]

Bump.

[juma]

See Zacharia Stitchen for answers. He reported them working in the gold mines way before they were discovered ! Planet Nibiru and ilk put them there. duh ! lol

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, that’s gotta be it. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[DCBryan1]

Found at the dig site!

[BenLurkin]

Excellent!

[RabidBartender]

[SunkenCiv]

In one of the old National Lampoon “True Facts” issues, there was a news clipping about a dig (seems like it was either in the British Isles, or in Iceland) in which archaeologists were electrified by the discovery of a doll, and were speculating as to its significance to the early culture that had lived on the site.

Then it was cleaned off, and found to be Stretch Armstrong.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BL!

[SunkenCiv]

• Early volcano victims discovered
• The Ashfall Story

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 4/24/2011, no ping, just updated ping messages.

---

join or quit view topics view or post blog bookmark post new topic subscribe

---