Skull of Homo erectus throws story of human evolution into disarray
A haul of fossils found in Georgia suggests that half a dozen species of early human ancestor were actually all Homo erectus
Ian Sample, science correspondent
theguardian.com, Thursday 17 October 2013 19.00 BST
The spectacular fossilised skull of an ancient human ancestor that died nearly two million years ago in central Asia has forced scientists to rethink the story of early human evolution.
Anthropologists unearthed the skull at a site in Dmanisi, a small town in southern Georgia, where other remains of human ancestors, simple stone tools and long-extinct animals have been dated to 1.8m years old.
Experts believe the skull is one of the most important fossil finds to date, but it has proved as controversial as it is stunning. Analysis of the skull and other remains at Dmanisi suggests that scientists have been too ready to name separate species of human ancestors in Africa. Many of those species may now have to be wiped from the textbooks.
The latest fossil is the only intact skull ever found of a human ancestor that lived in the early Pleistocene, when our predecessors first walked out of Africa. The skull adds to a haul of bones recovered from Dmanisi that belong to five individuals, most likely an elderly male, two other adult males, a young female and a juvenile of unknown sex.
The five H erectus skulls found in Dmanisi, Georgia. Photograph: Ponce de León, Zollikofe/University of Zurich
The site was a busy watering hole that human ancestors shared with giant extinct cheetahs, sabre-toothed cats and other beasts. The remains of the individuals were found in collapsed dens where carnivores had apparently dragged the carcasses to eat. They are thought to have died within a few hundred years of one another.
"Nobody has ever seen such a well-preserved skull from this period," said Christoph Zollikofer, a professor at Zurich University's Anthropological Institute, who worked on the remains. "This is the first complete skull of an adult early Homo. They simply did not exist before," he said. Homo is the genus of great apes that emerged around 2.4m years ago and includes modern humans.
Other researchers said the fossil was an extraordinary discovery. "The significance is difficult to overstate. It is stunning in its completeness. This is going to be one of the real classics in paleoanthropology," said Tim White, an expert on human evolution at the University of California, Berkeley.
But while the skull itself is spectacular, it is the implications of the discovery that have caused scientists in the field to draw breath. Over decades excavating sites in Africa, researchers have named half a dozen different species of early human ancestor, but most, if not all, are now on shaky ground.
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Read more here/Leia mais aqui: The Guardian
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Crânios sugerem que primeiros hominídeos pertenciam à mesma espécie
Descoberta de novo crânio pode reescrever história da espécie humana
Novo estudo sugere 'fusão' de espécies ancestrais do homem
Descoberta de novo crânio pode reescrever história da espécie humana
Novo estudo sugere 'fusão' de espécies ancestrais do homem
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NOTA DESTE BLOGGER:
Quando da descoberta em Dmanisi, Geórgia, eu disse que eles seriam demonstrados como sendo da mesma espécie. Riram de mim! Como é bom ser vindicado por evolucionistas!!!
Pano rápido! Pois não é apenas o um elo perdido, mas toda uma corrente perdida. E o pior de tudo isso é que eles sabem...
Pobre ciência sequestrada pelo naturalismo filosófico que posa como se fosse ciência. Nada mais falso!
