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Fossils Bridge Gap in African Mammal Evolution
Reuters to My Yahoo! ^ | Wed Dec 3, 2003 | Patricia Reaney

Posted on 12/03/2003 4:53:26 PM PST by Pharmboy

LONDON (Reuters) - Fossils discovered in Ethiopia's highlands are a missing piece in the puzzle of how African mammals evolved, a team of international scientists said on Wednesday.

Little is known about what happened to mammals between 24 million to 32 million years ago, when Africa and Arabia were still joined together in a single continent.

But the remains of ancestors of modern-day elephants and other animals, unearthed by the team of U.S. and Ethiopian scientists 27 million years on, provide some answers.

"We show that some of these very primitive forms continue to live through the missing years, and then during that period as well, some new forms evolved -- these would be the ancestors of modern elephants," said Dr John Kappelman, who headed the team.

The find included several types of proboscideans, distant relatives of elephants, and fossils from the arsinoithere, a rhinoceros-like creature that had two huge bony horns on its snout and was about 7 feet high at the shoulder.

"It continues to amaze me that we don't have more from this interval of time. We are talking about an enormous continent," said Kappelman, who is based at the University of Texas at Austin.

Scientists had thought arsinoithere had disappeared much earlier but the discovery showed it managed to survive through the missing years. The fossils from the new species found in Ethiopia are the largest, and at 27 million years old, the youngest discovered so far.

"If this animal was still alive today it would be the central attraction at the zoo," Tab Rasmussen, a paleontologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri who worked on the project, said in a statement.

Many of the major fossil finds in Ethiopia are from the Rift Valley. But Kappelman and colleagues in the United States and at Ethiopia's National Science Foundation (news - web sites) and Addis Ababa University concentrated on a different area in the northwestern part of the country.

Using high-resolution satellite images to scour a remote area where others had not looked before, his team found the remains in sedimentary rocks about 6,600 feet above sea level.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africa; archaeology; crevolist; evolution; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; links; mammals; multiregionalism; neandertal
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To: VadeRetro
Let's mention some dates here, OK? Hesperopithecus, 1922. Piltdown Man, 1912. The average creationist quotation, probably 1971.

The last outright fraud or hoax I can think of relating in any way to evolutionary theory was that fossil bird that was composed from the body of one creature and the tail of another. (Both being valid fossils individually.) That was, what, five or six years ago? Even that wasn't a nefarious evilutionist plot, but just some Chinese fossil merchant trying to make a few extra bucks. I don't know of any frauds or hoaxes touching on human evolution other than Piltdown.

Funny thing is, compared to most other scientific fields, evolutionary biology seems to have an unusually low rate of fraud and deception, as illustrated by the ancient dates of the examples that anti-evolutionists are able to dig up.

But then maybe this is explicable. Whatever the perceived "glamor" of the field, there isn't really much money involved in evolutionary biology, and fraud is usually about money in the end. Far and away the greatest number of frauds occur in biomedical science, and this is also where the most money is.

381 posted on 12/04/2003 5:07:26 PM PST by Stultis
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To: Dimensio
Right. I also have no evidence that invisible space pixies don't have a plan that will make me rich. However, because no evidence has surfaced that such things exist, I try not to waste my time worrying about them.

Actually you ruined your example. The fact you are not rich is active proof against the "pixie theory". Now the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong are a known fact (if you understand this reference than you too are a ball of fun at parties)

Wrong, but this isn't surprising from you. The assertion was made that people will be meeting up with Darwin sometime in the future. I was stating the negation of that assertion, and I based that negation on several known facts.

What "facts" are you basing your claim of no after life? (HINT: there are no "facts" on that subject"). If you would have asked those claiming that there is an afterlife for supporting evidence you would have retained the high ground but you got carried away and made an absolute statement that demands supporting evidence (your fingers were typing checks your science can't cash). Your statement requires evidence no matter what you were responding to (this is Aristotelian logic, I did not make it up).

You're just trying to make an argument, asserting that any position -- no matter what it is -- is "faith-based" because it cannot be proven to 100% certainty.

No. In the complete absence of supporting evidence - holding a position is merely a belief (I did not invent the rules of logic).

HINT: How can there be a way to prove or disprove the afterlife in this life. That is like claiming water is not wet by claiming the fact that you are not wet now proves water is not wet despite the fact you are currently not in the water.

Your method of "reasoning" would have us assuming absolutely anything, because one person's assumption is no better than another.

My method of reasoning is Aristotelian logic, if you don't like it - take it up with Aristote. In our existence we only have levels of certainty. Some positions have more certainty than other. There zero certainty that there is no life after death.

I don't think that you actually live your life that way, however, because I suspect that you only present this point of view in order to troll for replies.

If you don't live your life based on logic and reason you live your life based on delusion (be it science or religious). Science delusion is arrogance assumptions of unfounded certainty.

Opening your eyes is not always a pleasant experience.

382 posted on 12/04/2003 5:12:02 PM PST by Last Visible Dog
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To: Last Visible Dog
Dude, since the only reality is in your mind, just will the world to work the way you want it.
383 posted on 12/04/2003 5:36:21 PM PST by Junior ("Brillig and the Slithy Toves" would be a great name for a band.)
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To: Stultis
I don't know of any frauds or hoaxes touching on human evolution other than Piltdown.

Piltdown man was most definitely not an evolutionist fraud. It was a phoney fossil that was seen almost immediately to be something that didn't beling in the human family tree. It's as if you were putting together your own genealogy, and someone slipped in some documents purporting to show that your great-great grandfather was a guy who lived and died on Borneo, and who never left that island. If nobody else in your family had ever been there, he would be a most unlikely ancestor. It would be a very strange and suspicious data point in your family tree.

Eventually, through solid research, you would discover your real ancestor; although you might never learn who had handed you the bogus information. This would not be evidence that you were claiming a false genealogy. Rather, you'd be a victim of someone who was trying to discredit you.

That's why I suspect that Piltdown man was a creationist fraud. The fossil never served any evolutionist purpose.

384 posted on 12/04/2003 5:43:03 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
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To: Ichneumon
[329]

That's another post of yours bookmarked!

385 posted on 12/04/2003 5:43:06 PM PST by VadeRetro
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To: Stultis
The last outright fraud or hoax I can think of relating in any way to evolutionary theory was that fossil bird that was composed from the body of one creature and the tail of another. (Both being valid fossils individually.)

That was Archaeoraptor, announced October 99 and debunked in January 00. Yeah. I'm so old I remember the thread we did on it at the time.

386 posted on 12/04/2003 5:51:21 PM PST by VadeRetro
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To: PatrickHenry
That's why I suspect that Piltdown man was a creationist fraud.

And of course it's pretty obvious that it was created ;)

387 posted on 12/04/2003 5:54:30 PM PST by BMCDA
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To: bluejay
Those guys are fun!

Who are you referring to?

388 posted on 12/04/2003 6:06:37 PM PST by js1138
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To: Last Visible Dog
Please bring forth your evidence so we can put this age-old debate to rest.

I should be careful with this question because I don't know the answer. Can you cite chapter and verse that says we will meet specific, recognizable public figures in the afterlife and converse with them?

389 posted on 12/04/2003 6:20:43 PM PST by js1138
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To: js1138
Who are you referring to?

Didn't you suggest I should talk to some evolution proponents?
390 posted on 12/04/2003 6:22:07 PM PST by bluejay
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To: bluejay
I find this kind of attitude to be quite common in young and inexperience engineers. They always seem to know the best way to make a product ...

No engineer knows the best way to make a product. Never has. Never will. There is no best way.

When better ways are found they open paths to even better ways.

It is possible, however, for even a high school dropout to recognise crap.

391 posted on 12/04/2003 6:25:04 PM PST by js1138
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To: js1138
No engineer knows the best way to make a product. Never has. Never will. There is no best way.

Every engineer is absolutely certain he knows the best way to build a product.
392 posted on 12/04/2003 6:32:00 PM PST by bluejay
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To: Last Visible Dog
The fact you are not rich is active proof against the "pixie theory".

No it isn't. I'm just not doing what the magic pixies want me to do, that's why I'm not rich yet.

What "facts" are you basing your claim of no after life?

The "fact" that thus far there is considerable physical evidence that human consciousness is a result of the chemical reactions in the brain and thus far there is no evidence that human conscious is anything other than a result of the chemical reactions in the human brain.
393 posted on 12/04/2003 6:32:52 PM PST by Dimensio (The only thing you feel when you take a human life is recoil. -- Frank "Earl" Jones)
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To: js1138
It is possible, however, for even a high school dropout to recognise crap.

Wisdom in a nutshell. Too bad "common sense" is so rare.

394 posted on 12/04/2003 6:32:54 PM PST by balrog666 (Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.)
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To: bluejay
Every engineer is absolutely certain he knows the best way to build a product.

I don't know the best way to build a bridge, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't spot a poorly-built bridge.
395 posted on 12/04/2003 6:33:46 PM PST by Dimensio (The only thing you feel when you take a human life is recoil. -- Frank "Earl" Jones)
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To: bluejay
Didn't you suggest I should talk to some evolution proponents?

I don't know any who post on these threads who have expressed any interest in how homosexuality evolved. But you successfully diverted the discussion away from my original question.

396 posted on 12/04/2003 6:33:48 PM PST by js1138
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To: bluejay
Every engineer is absolutely certain he knows the best way to build a product.

Remind not to hire any engineers that ever worked for you.

397 posted on 12/04/2003 6:35:20 PM PST by balrog666 (Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.)
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To: balrog666
Remind not to hire any engineers that ever worked for you.

Well the Intelligent Designer (as presented on these threads) is certainly full of himself. Either that or the presenters are full of themselves.

398 posted on 12/04/2003 6:45:09 PM PST by js1138
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To: js1138
... But you successfully diverted the discussion away from my original question.

The post to which I replied was:

I agree. Now find someone among the evolution proponents on this thread who disagree with that statement.

I did not realize it contained a question.
399 posted on 12/04/2003 6:48:10 PM PST by bluejay
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To: balrog666
Remind not to hire any engineers that ever worked for you.

OK. Consider yourself reminded.
400 posted on 12/04/2003 6:49:31 PM PST by bluejay
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