Fossils Shed New Light on Human Past (Our ancestors were more modern than scholars had assumed)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 10/2/2009 | Robert Lee Hotz

[SeekAndFind]

After 15 years of rumors, researchers made public fossils from a 4.4 million-year-old human forebear they say reveals that our ancestors were more modern than scholars had assumed, widening the evolutionary gulf separating humankind from apes and chimpanzees.

The highlight of the extensive fossil trove was a female skeleton a million years older than the iconic bones of Lucy, the primitive female figure that has long symbolized humankind's beginnings.

An international research team led by paleoanthropologist Tim White at the University of California, Berkeley, unveiled on Thursday remains from 36 males, females and young of an ancient prehuman species called Ardipithecus ramidus, unearthed in the Awash region of Ethiopia starting in 1994. The creatures take their scientific name from the word for "root" in the local Afar language. They aren't the oldest known fossils of hominids -- as prehuman species and their relatives are called -- but constitute the most complete set discovered so far.

"It is not a chimp, and it is not human," said Dr. White. "It gives us a new perspective on our origins. We opened a time capsule from a time and place that we knew nothing about."

Although the differences between humans, apes and chimps today are legion, we all shared a common ancestor six million years or so ago. These fossils suggest that the common ancestor -- still undiscovered -- resembled a chimp much less than researchers have always believed.

In fact, so many traits in modern chimps and apes are missing from these early hominids that researchers now question the notion that chimps and apes are a repository of primitive traits once shared by our ancestors. "We all thought the ancestral animal would look more like a chimp," said Yale University anthropologist Andrew Hill.

[SeekAndFind]

Interactive Graphics and Photos

[A Mississippian]

Interesting. Long arms, large hands.... That looks a lot like Michael Phelps’ skeleton.... I’m just not sure how they knew the bodywas covered with hair like a gorilla.

[z3n]

To paraphrase scientists: "Chimps, Apes and Humans are more distinct than we thought, and probably more distinct from the common predecessor"

To paraphrase God: "Hello! McFly!"

[SeekAndFind]

I’m just not sure how they knew the body was covered with hair like a gorilla.

The hypothesis is that human beings evolved from Simians, then they construct a scenario to fit the idea when they find a fossil.

[4Speed]

ping

[frithguild]

An international research team led by paleoanthropologist Tim White at the University of California, Berkeley, professorus bowtieicus, unveiled on Thursday remains from 36 males, females and young of an ancient prehuman species called Ardipithecus ramidus, unearthed in the Awash region of Ethiopia starting in 1994.

[goodusername]

“To paraphrase scientists: “Chimps, Apes and Humans are more distinct than we thought, and probably more distinct from the common predecessor”
To paraphrase God: “Hello! McFly!””

—I’m not sure how that’s a paraphrase of what the scientists are saying. The article is actually saying that the common ancestor was likely more human than thought.
It used to be thought that the common ancestor would be essentially a chimp anatomically, and that it was humans that did virtually all the changing while chimps changed little since the common ancestor. But the fossil evidence indicates that humans changed less than thought while chimps changed a bit more than thought, and so the common ancestor is as close anatomically to humans as it is to chimps.

[SunkenCiv]

related:

• Oldest known human ancestor rewrites evolution theories
• Scientists discover pre-human ancestor who lived 4.4 million years ago

rants:

• Exceptional Humans Did Not Evolve from Apes
• Did apes descend from us?
• Bones of "Ardi," New Human Evolution Fossil, "Crushed Nearly to Smithereens"

[SunkenCiv]

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