Fossil Hints At Primate Origins (Out-Of-Asia?)

BBC ^ | 10-29-2003 | PNAS

[blam]

"The Africa, Asia, or Europe of 45 million years ago is not the Africa, Asia, or Europe of today."

Yup. I agree. I've noticed that people have a hard time shaking the idea that the people that are in a place today have always been there. For example, I happen to believe that pro-Celtics were the majority group in the middle east 2-3,000 years ago.

[RightWhale]

Isn't there a musical comedy on this topic? HMS Pinafore or something? Should be.

[blam]

"Can some one theorize (you, perhaps, blam or some one else) a scenario that would take these new facts into account? (assuming they are correctly being interpreted)"

First, let me say, I don't think we'll ever have exact 'proof' of any one theory.

The most recent theory that I like is from James Chatters, in his book, Ancient Encounters. He proposed that the people we know as Kennewick Man, Spirit Cave Man and Etc, were the forefathers of all the present day Asians and Europeans.
Their ancestors covered all of Asia and then streamed back into Europe and to a lesser degree Africa. That would explain the DNA paradox that you pointed out.

The multiregional theory is appealing and is similar to this idea. I'm a multiregionalist, like Milton Wolfpof(sp).

[Question_Assumptions]

How do you distinguish a proto-Celt from another proto-Indo-European group? Are you talking about language, culture, or genetics? And are you talking about the Mediterrainian coast of the Middle East or the deep interior? There is little doubt that Indo-European groups entered India and parts of the Middle East at varous points (for example, the Philistines were almost certainly Mycenaean Greeks). And the mummies found in Western China certainly scream "Celt". While some researchers do group Tocharian in a larger family with Italic and Celtic and Anatolian Indo-European languages, that raises the question of how "Celtic" that proto group was that the language family spawned from. Are you thinking in terms of genetics, language, culture, or some combination of them?

[Constantine XIII]

http://www.besse.at/sms/reconstr.gif

[aimhigh]

An ankle bone discovered in central Burma could be evidence ...If correct,...might have ... They even speculate ... may have .."

Science. Just another form of faith.

[jennyp]

An ankle bone discovered in central Burma could be evidence ...If correct,...might have ... They even speculate ... may have .."

Science. Just another form of faith.

Huh??? Making cautious, qualified statements proves that science is just another form of faith???

Can you imagine a religious person talking about their personal relationship with someone they "speculate" "might be" the one who "may have" created the universe?

You know as well as I that if thost scientist had left out the qualifiers, you'd be ranting against those arrogant scientists who think they know everything, and that this is proof that science is every bit as faith-based as the most ardent believer in God.

[mewzilla]

It's a lot of speculation to center on just one ankle bone.

[Junior]

...we still have to account for the fact that Asians and Europeans have similar DNA and are both quite different from African DNA.

Human DNA, regardless of its continent of origin, is nearly identical across all races. This has been attributed to a "genetic bottleneck" about 70k years ago in which the entire human species was reduced to less than 2,000 individuals. In other words, African DNA is not "quite different" than Asian or European DNA.

[jennyp]

The "Out-Of-Africa" folks aren't gonna like this.

This was a little confusing at first. But this report is talking about the origin of the anthropoid apes and humans (including lemurs, chimps, monkeys, us, etc.) as opposed to tarsiers and lorises. This all happened something like 40 million years ago.

"Out of Africa" is a theory of when Homo erectus first left Africa, where it's pretty clear its immediate Australopithecus ancestors came from just a couple million years ago.

[whattajoke]

From "Science made stupid?" That hardly bolsters anyone's POV. (Although, some of it was pretty funny).

http://www.besse.at/sms/smsintro.html

[blam]

"Are you thinking in terms of genetics, language, culture, or some combination of them?"

Can't think of any one thing specifically, probably just a combination of reading a lot of different things. My point is that many would have problems 'seeing' the Celtics(proto) in that region.

[blam]

"This has been attributed to a "genetic bottleneck" about 70k years ago in which the entire human species was reduced to less than 2,000 individuals. "

The cause of the 'bottleneck' was Toba, 75,000 years ago.

[blam]

""Out of Africa" is a theory of when Homo erectus first left Africa, where it's pretty clear its immediate Australopithecus ancestors came from just a couple million years ago."

Skulls found in Georgia recently (see the latest edition of Scientific American) throw this whole idea into question too.

[blam]

Ancestry Of Europeans Traced To Middle East

[Junior]

Suspected cause. It's in the right timeframe and the right area, and it's an excellent candidate, but Toba's not been conclusively linked to the genetic bottleneck.

[f.Christian]

Can you imagine a religious person talking about their personal relationship with someone they "speculate" "might be" the one who "may have" created the universe?

Posted by f.Christian to Sentis

Evolution uses existence as proof with no explanation of existence ... it happens (( big bang ))---

you 're comfortable with that gobble - gobble - turkey !

Halloween too !

Posted by Sentis to f.Christian

Religion uses God as proof with no explanation of his existence. I know existence exists I don't see god.

[Dimensio]

[Constantine XIII]

Hey, it's just a joke. :p

Not taking sides...

[Dimensio]

I wasn't directing a comment at you. Just posting something that seemed appropriate given the image. Also, I'm showing off a new tagline :)