Thanks Renfield.Scientists Look To Europe As Evolutionary SeatUniversity of Toronto anthropologist David Begun and his European colleagues are re-writing the book on the history of great apes and humans, arguing that most of their evolutionary development took place in Eurasia, not Africa. In back-to-back issues of the Journal of Human Evolution, Begun and his collaborators describe two fossils, both discovered in Europe. One comes from the oldest relative of all living great apes (orangutans and African apes) and humans; the other is the most complete skull ever found of a close relative of the African apes and humans. In the November 2001 issue, Begun and colleague Elmar Heizmann of the Natural History Museum of Stuttgart discuss the earliest-known great ape fossil, broadly ancestral to all living great apes and humans. "Found in Germany 20 years ago, this specimen is about 16.5 million years old, some 1.5 million years older than similar species from East Africa," Begun says. "It suggests that the great ape and human lineage first appeared in Eurasia and not Africa." In the December 2001 paper, Begun and colleague L·szl€ Kordos of the Geological Museum of Hungary describe the skull of Dryopithecus, discovered in Hungary by their team a couple of years ago. The fossil is identical to living great apes in brain size and very similar to African apes in the shape of the skull and face and in details of the teeth, the researchers say.
Adapted from University Of Toronto materials
ScienceDaily
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
The Scars of Evolution"The most remarkable aspect of Todaro's discovery emerged when he examined Homo Sapiens for the 'baboon marker'. It was not there... Todaro drew one firm conclusion. 'The ancestors of man did not develop in a geographical area where they would have been in contact with the baboon. I would argue that the data we are presenting imply a non-African origin of man millions of years ago.'"
by Elaine Morgan
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Uncommon Cold ping. ;') |
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Retrovirus Struck Ancestors Of Chimps And Gorillas Millions Of Years Ago, But Not Ancestral HumansWhat researchers don't understand is why the virus affected the ancestors of chimps, gorillas, and Old World monkeys, but didn't affect the ancestors of humans or of Asian apes like orangutans and gibbons. The infections took place independently, and did not originate in a common ancestor of humans and apes. The event also took place between three and four million years ago, well after the separation of humans from apes. That split is estimated to have occurred five to seven million years ago.
adapted from University Of Washington materials
ScienceDaily
Wednesday, March 9, 2005
The Chimp Genome Reveals A Retroviral Invasion In Primate EvolutionSearching the genomes of a subset of apes and monkeys revealed that the retrovirus had integrated into the germline of African great apes and Old World monkeys -- but did not infect humans and Asian apes (orangutan, siamang, and gibbon). This undermines the notion that an ancient infection invaded an ancestral primate lineage, since great apes (including humans) share a common ancestor with Old World monkeys... Eichler and colleagues estimate that gorillas and chimps were infected about 3-4 million years ago, and baboon and macaque about 1.5 million years ago. The disconnect between the evolutionary history of the retrovirus and the primates, the authors conclude, could be explained if the Old World monkeys were infected by "several diverged viruses" while gorilla and chimpanzee were infected by a single, though unknown, source... As for how this retroviral infection bypassed orangutans and humans, the authors offer a number of possible scenarios but dismiss geographic isolation: even though Asian and African apes were mostly isolated during the Miocene era (spanning 24 to 5 million years ago), humans and African apes did overlap.
adapted from Public Library Of Science materials
ScienceDaily
Tuesday, April 5, 2005
Good post. Thanks!
Ancient Trade-Off May Explain Why Humans Get HIV
New Scientist | 6-21-2007 | Roxanne Khamsi
Posted on 06/22/2007 8:32:35 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1854877/posts
Ape To Human: Walking Upright May Have Protected Heavy Human Babies
Science Daily | 12-17-2007 | Springer.
Posted on 12/17/2007 4:50:35 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1940836/posts
Most Ancient Case Of Tuberculosis Found
In 500,000-year-old Human; Points To Modern Health Issues
Science Daily | 12-7-2007 | University of Texas at Austin.
Posted on 12/07/2007 8:10:26 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1936456/posts
Human Ancestor Preserved in Stone
ScienceNOW Daily News | 7 December 2007 | Ann Gibbons
Posted on 12/08/2007 2:02:48 AM EST by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1936544/posts
EosimiasTiny 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
Did Early Humans First Arise in Asia, Not Africa?
National Geographic News | December 27, 2005 | Nicholas Bakalar
Posted on 12/28/2005 7:01:34 PM EST by SuzyQue
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1548375/posts
How closely related are humans to apes and other animals?
Source: Scientific American
Published: October 23, 2000 Author: Eileen Veasy
Posted on 04/23/2001 10:46:39 PDT by PatrickHenry
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ae46a7f1bcb.htm
Alkhin, a former anthro student.
