Thursday, October 1, 2009

Yet another missing link in Human evolution


Tomorrow in the journal Science eleven papers by 47 authors from 10 countries will describe the analysis of a discovery made in 1992. That discovery may help solve the problem of how the ancestral line that led to humans split from the the line that led to chimpanzees for which there has been virtually no evidence until now. It may be that the newest creature, Ardipithecus ramidus (Ardi), which predates the widely know "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis) by over one million years is in our lineage from the common ancestor between chimps and humans. The discovery made near where Lucy was found suggests that continued research in that part of Ethiopia could lead to that last common ancestor of humans and chimps. This also shows the deliberate slowness of scientific discovery, 17 years of research, peer review and debate before a joint announcement is made. Another missing link in the long list of missing links that creationists claim don't exist.

4 comments:

  1. Do any of you people ever wonder why they only find one of these specimens? Wouldn't it stand to reason that there would be many such animals living in one area? If everything is evolving, then why so very few "different" from us humans? I have yet to see anyone evolving today into some other creature. Do some research and you'll find that no species has ever changed it's DNA structure. Evolution has so many "holes" in it's science, yet it is still considered valid. How about that carbon dating system!!! What unreliable, false works just to disprove creationism. There will be alot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually Shelly that's a very good point. If you had read my link at the New York Times, well let me quote from the NYTimes:

    The first comprehensive reports describing the skeleton and related findings, the result of 17 years of study, are being published Friday in the journal Science. Eleven papers by 47 authors from 10 countries describe the analysis of more than 110 Ardipithecus specimens from a minimum of 36 different individuals, including Ardi.

    The paleoanthropologists wrote in one of the articles that Ardipithecus was “so rife with anatomical surprises that no one could have imagined it without direct fossil evidence.”

    A bounty of animal and plant material — “every seed, every piece of fossil wood, every scrap of bone,” Dr. White said — was gathered to set the scene of the cooler, more humid woodland habitat in which these hominids had lived.

    So you see there were at least 36 different individuals found together in this discovery. Evolution takes a great deal of time, almost more than can be comprehended by people. Furthermore DNA is constantly changing both ramdomly and by selection pressures that force creatures to evolve.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ardi may be related to some these scientists, but she's not related to me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. These scientists have missed their calling! They should write fairy tales. Ex: "Once upon a time, long, long ago." I wasn't there, of course, but I going to tell you what I think happened and you just believe it cause I said so!

    ReplyDelete