Posted on 05/19/2009 2:29:11 PM PDT by JoeProBono
The History Channel is running promotions for a program they will air on May 25th. The “teasers” in these advertisements sound like it could be this same fossil. I look at the picture and see the Geico lizard!
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Thanks in advance for keeping it civil. |
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· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
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New fossil reveals primates lingered in Texas
EurekAlert! | October 13, 2008 | Chris Kirk, University of Texas at Austin
Posted on 11/06/2008 4:10:01 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2127425/posts
Little teeth suggest big jump in primate timeline
PhysOrg | Monday, August 4, 2008 | Duke University
Posted on 08/07/2008 10:27:32 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2058114/posts
Ancient Anthropoid Origins Discovered In Africa
Duke University | 13 October 2005 | News office staff
Posted on 10/14/2005 3:27:55 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1502273/posts
Tiny Fossil AnimalFossil bones of an animal no bigger than a shrew and weighing less than an ounce have been identified as belonging to the earliest known relative in the primate lineage that led to monkeys, apes and humans. The wee animal lived 45 million years ago in a humid rain forest in what is now China... The paleontologists who announced the discovery yesterday said the fossil animals, named Eosimias for "dawn monkey," were the best evidence yet for fixing the time and place of one of the more fateful branchings in evolution. Eosimias appeared to be a transitional figure when lower primates, known as prosimians, went their separate way, developing into today's lemurs, lorises, bush babies and tarsiers, while the diverging higher primates, anthropoids, evolved into more prepossessing creatures, eventually including human beings... scatterings of fossils point to the earliest primates of any kind appearing about 55 million years ago, mainly in Asia. But when the two lines of primates diverged had seemed to be lost in the wide gaps in the fossil record... This was further evidence that, although the more immediate human forebears arose in Africa, their earliest primate ancestors appeared to come from Asia. Somehow primates then migrated to Africa. Dr. MacPhee said the Euroasian origin of primates was now generally accepted by scientists, "thanks in part to Beard's work," but "why that should be is itself controversial now."
May Link Lower Primates
With Humans
by John Noble Wilford
March 16, 2000
maybe.
Grandpa!
Thanks for the ping. It is a beautiful specimen, for sure. Still, this seems like an awful lot of hype for one specimen. Lots we still don’t know about that far back in time.
I watched this on History last night. Their analysis was that the fossil was a transitional link between lemurs and monkeys. This was based on the absence of two lemur-like characteristics (grooming claw and tooth comb) but the presence of grasping 1st toes on front and back paws, finger/toe nails, and large orbits.
It was a very well preserved and intact fossil, 95% complete skeleton, but flattened. Much of what they based their conclusions on was computer reconstruction, which as we know can be used to make Tom Hanks appear to be receiving the Medal Of Honor from LBJ, or a boy wizard flying on a broom.
Wow, that means that boy wasn’t really flying on a broom?!? ;’) Thanks CJ.
It’s a story with a short shelf life, and its movers and shakers want to maximize attention and interest.
They do seem to be extrapolating a lot from not much evidence.
Still, it's an amazingly intact and well preserved fossil, really a beauty.
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