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| Europe |
| Major Anthropological Discovery In European Georgia |
| 2005-08-23 |
| Archaeologists in the former Soviet republic of Georgia have unearthed a skull they say is 1.8 million years old, representing part of a find that holds the oldest traces of humanity's closest ancestors ever found in Europe. The Homo erectus skull was found this month in Dmanisi, an area about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Tbilisi, said Georgian National Museum director David Lortkipanidze, who took part in the dig. In total, five bones or fragments believed to be about the same age have been found in the area, including a jawbone discovered in 1991, Lortkipanidze said by telephone. The skull, however, was in the best condition of the five. It was unearthed on Sunday and sent to the museum for further study. "Practically all the remains have been found in one place. This indicates that we have found a place of settlement of primitive people," he said of the spot, where archaeologists have been working since 1939. The findings in Georgia, which researchers said were a million years older than any widely accepted pre-human remains in Europe, have provided additional evidence that Homo erectus left Africa a half-million years or more earlier than scientists had previously thought. A well-preserved skull from the Dmanisi site would be "very important" in helping to track the development and migration of human ancestors, said Brian Richmond, a professor at the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology at George Washington University in Washington. Study of the skull could help scientists understand "what it is about these individuals that allowed them to move outside of Africa" — how their bodies and their use of tools advanced to enable them to move more freely, Richmond said. Million-year-old fossils of hominids — extinct creatures of the extended ancestral family of modern humans — have been found in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, but not in Western Europe. Georgia is south of the Caucasus Mountains, east of the Black Sea and northeast of Turkey, but is considered part of Europe. "I'd like the class to open your textbooks to chapter 8 through 11. Now please tear them out and throw them away as you leave today. They are wrong." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #5 bet he was robbed and killed by a Chechen |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-23 21:47 |
| #4 There are lots of odd twists and turns to genetics. For example, the only way to trace back that far is through mothers' mitochondrial RNA, which has been described as a "more primitive" precurser to DNA, now retained primarily as a cellular engine, instead of a blueprint like DNA. DNA is far more complex, but also terribly prone to error, transmitted fault, and mutation. It also might be not uncommon for humans to "swap" DNA with animals and even plants. In addition, some people may have DNA "repair" mechanisms that fix DNA deviations from the other parent to the offspring--keeping the species' genes from too much incremental degeneration. Interestingly enough, because humans no longer have to compete to survive in harsh nature, we have large amounts of defective genes that would have otherwise been purged--far more than most common mammals. Over time, this may accellerate our breaking apart into separate species. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-08-23 21:44 |
| #3 The Out of Africa theory is largely a result of mathmatical ignorance. Each one of us had a nominal several hundred million ancestors 80K years ago. Since the number of actual humans at that time was far fewer, statistically we all share the same pool of ancestors starting considerably more recent than that and of course going all they way back to the first organism that swan through the primeval soup. There were people in Africa at that time and people at an unknown other number of places. We are decended from all of them (assuming a population was not completely isolated). |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-08-23 21:22 |
| #2 The find doesn't disprove "Out of Africa"; it just shifts the date back a bit. (But the Clovis First theory was drowned like a sack of kittens earlier this year.) |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-08-23 09:11 |
| #1 Orthodoxy is all. When a 'concept' takes hold within a community, the amount of energy spent protecting that concept eventually morphs into a stone wall. We are stuck with the 'Out of Africa' theory for generations because of PC and the laziness of tenured professors to do real science. You will see the establishment keep pushing back what is 'human' as older and older bones are found outside the Rift Valley. If you look in one place, you'll only find in one place. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and some opening up of Central Asia, I suspect you are in for some interesting 'new' finds. However, watch as the establishment fights to discredit every piece of evidence that does not conform to its vision of the world, and unfortunately, one that is anchored upon PC doctrine not science. |
| Posted by: Whineck Cleremp7490 2005-08-23 09:09 |