More bad news for our scripture believing friends

[_Buffalo]

http://www.livescience.com/15952-closes ... ution.html

Closest Human Ancestor May Rewrite Steps in Our Evolution
Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience Contributor
Date: 08 September 2011 Time: 10:00 AM ET


A startling mix of human and primitive traits found in the brains, hips, feet and hands of an extinct species identified last year make a strong case for it being the immediate ancestor to the human lineage, scientists have announced.

These new findings could rewrite long-standing theories about the precise steps human evolution took, they added, including the notion that early human female hips changed shape to accommodate larger-brained offspring. There is also new evidence suggesting that this species had the hands of a toolmaker.

Fossils of the extinct hominid known as Australopithecus sediba were accidentally discovered by the 9-year-old son of a scientist in the remains of a cave in South Africa in 2008, findings detailed by researchers last year. Australopithecus means "southern ape," and is a group that includes the iconic fossil Lucy, while sediba means "wellspring" in the South African language Sotho. [See images of human ancestor]



Two key specimens were discovered — a juvenile male as developed as a 10- to 13-year-old human and an adult female maybe in her late 20s or early 30s. The species is both a hominid and a hominin — hominids include humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and their extinct ancestors, while hominins include those species after Homo, the human lineage, split from that of chimpanzees.

To begin to see where Au. sediba might fit on the family tree, researchers pinned down the age of the fossils by dating the calcified sediments surrounding them with advanced uranium-lead dating techniques and a method called paleomagnetic dating, which measures how many times the Earth's magnetic field has reversed. They discovered the fossils were approximately 1.977 million years old, which predates the earliest appearances of traits specific to the human lineage Homo in the fossil record. This places Au. sediba in roughly the same age category as hominids such as Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis, which were thought to be potential ancestors to Homo erectus, the earliest undisputed predecessor of modern humans. [10 Things That Make Humans Special]

"As the fossil record for early human ancestors increases, the need for more accurate dates is becoming paramount," said researcher Robyn Pickering at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Small but humanlike brain

Most aspects of Au. sediba display an intriguing mix of both human and more primitive features that hint it might be an intermediary form between Australopithecus and Homo.

"The fossils demonstrate a surprisingly advanced but small brain, a very evolved hand with a long thumb like a human's, a very modern pelvis, but a foot and ankle shape never seen in any hominin species that combines features of both apes and humans in one anatomical package," said researcher Lee Berger, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. "The many very advanced features found in the brain and body and the earlier date make it possibly the best candidate ancestor for our genus, the genus Homo, more so than previous discoveries such as Homo habilis."

The brain is often thought of as what distinguishes humanity from the rest of the animal kingdom, and the juvenile specimen of Au. sediba had an exceptionally well-preserved skull that could shed light on the pace of brain evolution in early hominins. To find out more, the researchers scanned the space in the skull where its brain would have been using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France; the result is the most accurate scan ever produced for an early human ancestor, with a level of detail of up to 90 microns, or just below the size of a human hair.

The scan revealed Au. sediba had a much smaller brain than seen in human species, with an adult version maybe only as large as a medium-size grapefruit. However, it was humanlike in several ways — for instance, its orbitofrontal region directly behind the eyes apparently expanded in ways that make it more like a human's frontal lobe in shape. This area is linked in humans with higher mental functions such as multitasking, an ability that may contribute to human capacities for long-term planning and innovative behavior.

"We could be seeing the beginnings of those capabilities," researcher Kristian Carlson at the University of Witwatersrand told LiveScience.

These new findings cast doubt on the long-standing theory that brains gradually increased in size and complexity from Australopithecus to Homo. Instead, their findings corroborate an alternative idea — that Australopithecus brains did increase in complexity gradually, becoming more like Homo, and later increased in size relatively quickly.

Modern hips

This mosaic of modern and primitive traits held true with its hips as well. An analysis of the partial pelvis of the female Au. sediba revealed that it had modern, humanlike features.

"It is surprising to discover such an advanced pelvis in such a small-brained creature," said researcher Job Kibii at the University of the Witwatersrand. "It is short and broad like a human pelvis ... parts of the pelvis are indistinguishable from that of humans."

Scientists had thought the human-like pelvis evolved to accommodate larger-brained offspring. The new findings of humanlike hips in Au. sediba despite small-brained offspring suggests these pelvises may have instead initially evolved to help this hominin better wander across the landscape, perhaps as grasslands began to expand across its habitat.

When it came to walking, investigating the feet and ankles of the fossils revealed surprises about how Au. sediba might have strode across the world. No hominin ankle has ever been described with so many primitive and advanced features.

"If the bones had not been found stuck together, the team may have described them as belonging to different species," said researcher Bernhard Zipfel at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The researchers discovered that its ankle joint is mostly like a human's, with some evidence for a humanlike arch and a well--efined Achilles tendon, but its heel and shin bones appear to be mostly ape-like. This suggested the hominid probably climbed trees yet also walkid in a unique way not exactly like that of humans.

Altogether, such anatomical traits would have allowed Au. sediba to walk in perhaps a more energy-efficient way, with tendons storing energy and returning that energy to the next step, said researcher Steve Churchill from Duke University in Durham, N.C. "These are the kinds of things that we see with the genus Homo," he explained.

What nice hands …

Finally, an analysis of Au. sediba's hands suggests it might have been a toolmaker. The fossils — including the most complete hand known in an early hominin, which is missing only a few bones and belonged to the mature female specimen — showed its hand was capable of the strong grasping needed for tree-climbing, but that it also had a long thumb and short fingers. These would have allowed it a precision grip useful for tools, one involving just the thumb and fingers, where the palm does not play an active part.

Altogether, the hand of Au. sediba has more features related to tool-making than that of the first human species thought of as a tool user, the "handy man" Homo habilis, said researcher Tracy Kivell at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. "This suggests to us that sediba may also have been a toolmaker."

Though the scientists haven't excavated the site in search of stone tools, "the hand and brain morphology suggest that Au. sediba may have had the capacity to manufacture and use complex tools," Kivell added.

The researchers do caution that although they suggest that Au. sediba was ancestral to the human lineage, all these apparent resemblances between it and us could just be coincidences, with this extinct species evolving similar traits to our lineages due, perhaps, to similar circumstances. [Top 10 Missing Links]

In fact, it might be just as interesting to imagine that Au. sediba was not directly ancestral to Homo, because it opens up the possibility "of independent evolution of the same sorts of features," Carlson said. "Whether or not it's on the same lineage as leading to Homo, I think there are interesting questions and implications."

The scientists detailed their findings in the Sept. 9 issue of the journal Science.

[_DarkHelmet]

If I was an apologist, I would say this proves scientists just change their minds all the time. The church always stands firm in their beliefs. Science changes whenever new evidence emerges. You can't trust science.

[_beefcalf]

FINALLY!

Now that we have the first actual evidence that proves the fact of human evolution, creationists will be decidedly unable to deny it any longer!

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uh, wait...

[_consiglieri]

I like it!

But then, I also think the Book of Abraham teaches evolution as God's creation method of choice. ;^)

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_Buffalo]

I like it!

But then, I also think the Book of Abraham teaches evolution as God's creation method of choice. ;^)

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

This teaching must have been written in invisible ink. Perhaps it's only visible through the secret Masonic decoder ring. ;)

[_bcspace]

Now that we have the first actual evidence that proves the fact of human evolution, creationists will be decidedly unable to deny it any longer!

Sure. But what has this to do with scripture believers as per the thread title? For example, I accept the LDS scriptures and evolution, noting that there is no conflict between evolution and LDS doctrine.

[_Buffalo]

Now that we have the first actual evidence that proves the fact of human evolution, creationists will be decidedly unable to deny it any longer!

Sure. But what has this to do with scripture believers as per the thread title? For example, I accept the LDS scriptures and evolution, noting that there is no conflict between evolution and LDS doctrine.

That's because you don't believe in LDS scriptures. This thread is addressed to scripture believers.

[_DrW]

Now that we have the first actual evidence that proves the fact of human evolution, creationists will be decidedly unable to deny it any longer!

Sure. But what has this to do with scripture believers as per the thread title? For example, I accept the LDS scriptures and evolution, noting that there is no conflict between evolution and LDS doctrine.

The Book of Mormon and other LDS Scripture, as well as a number of LDS leaders, teach a 7000 year old Earth ("temporal" existence of the earth is 7000 years) and/or a literal global flood at the time of Noah, both of which are incompatible with evolution as understood by science.

With regard to the age of the Earth, the genetic and archeological records show that Homo sapiens have been living on this planet continuously for some 200,000 years, which would clearly not be possible if the planet was less than 10,000 years old.

With regard to the flood of Noah, the genetic clock (rate of spontaneous DNA mutations) in the human genome does not show a population bottleneck at the time of Noah. Human populations have undergone two bottlenecks since the emergence of homo sapiens and neither of them occurred at the time of Noah or went to the size of Noah and his crew on the ark.

The first one was approximately 140,000 years ago and the second was approximately 70,000 years ago. In the second, the data indicate that the human population was reduced to something like 15,000, considerably more folks than would have fit onto Noah's ark.

In addition to rejecting much of LDS scripture, in order to believe in evolution, one also must discount the story of Adam and Eve and pretty much the rest of Genesis and much of the Old Testament, reject the LDS doctrine of "the Fall of Adam", and reject LDS racist teachings regarding those with darker skin color as being in any way different, of lower evolutionary status, or cursed (population genetics simply do not justify any such distinction among the races based on skin color). And these are just for starters.

Perhaps in an alternate universe--.

[_Some Schmo]

If history has taught us anything, the wing nuts that deny the fact of evolution will see this article as more proof that evolution didn't happen. They won't say exactly how it's proof; they'll just wave their magic god wand and wisp common sense away, like they always do.

You can't make a person see what they refuse to see. They'll set their feet, clench their fists and ass, close their eyes, and repeat "la la la la la la la la la la..." until that big bad evolution topic walks away. Being god's soldier means ignoring everything but your "mission."

Let's face it; religion implicitly (and in some cases, explicitly) encourages ignorance.

[_jon]

So these remains are of humanesque individuals lived and died circa 1.9 million years ago...but Adam was the first man and there was no death before he ate the apple...and that took place circa 6,000 years ago in Missouri...and...*kabooom, head explodes*