Another scientific breakthrough.

[Starfish]

However, this one made my day.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/healthscience/science/anthro/2002-07-11-skulls.htm


Yes, you read that right....

6-7 million years old.

Todd is going to keel over.

 

[Spinaroonie]

Conan said that it was offered a job on 60 minutes.

 

[riff]

Hey yeah! I read about it in today's paper. It's amazing to think about.

I love physical antropology. OK. So I made a C in it when I was at FSU, but I still read all about it and follow it.

You might like this link Starfish

Max Planc Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

 

[Starfish]

Wow, riff, thank you. Thier databases looks delightful.

Conan is a dorko and has no clue. The dudes on sixty minuets are all more ancient than that. They are total anerobes. We're talking pre Oxygen atmospheric period.

 

[Dougy]

Is this really that surprising? I mean afarenis was already what 4 million years old...and we knew that there was something before that. I seem to recall that there were studies of some sort of protein differences between humans and apes that placed the split at about 5 million years. So, if this is correct, we set it back a million, so what. I mean there was debate about Ramapithecences being from the human line, and that would have put it back at somehting like 10 or 15 million. Eventually more evidence was found and it was found to be more likely along the ape bloodline.

And haven't we known or at least suspected that Neanderthals weren't part of the direct Homo sapiens sapiens bloodline for quite some time?

Okay...I'll shut up now.

 

[Nora]

Dougy, it gets me totally hot when you say "Ramapithecences"


I just thought you should know that.

 

[Dougy]

I just have sooo much to say about Ramapithecenes too...Oh wait, no I don't.

 

[Nora]

Well then make something up! It's not like I'm gonna know the difference anyway!

 

[Dougy]

Hell...I could look something up, but I am afraid it will contradict me. You know ignorance isn't ignorance if you're not aware of it, right?

Okay...didn't contradict me too much...
Ramapithecus
(rämepethe´kes, -pith´e-) , an extinct group of primates that lived from about 12 to 14 million years ago, for a time regarded as a possible ancestor of Australopithecus and, therefore, of modern humans. Fossils of Ramapithecus were discovered in N India and in E Africa, beginning in 1932. Although it was generally an apelike creature, Ramapithecus was considered a possible human ancestor on the basis of the reconstructed jaw and dental characteristics of fragmentary fossils. A complete jaw discovered in 1976 was clearly nonhominid, however, and Ramapithecus is now regarded by many as a member of Sivapithecus, a genus considered to be an ancestor of the orangutan . See also human evolution .

That do anything for ya?

 

[Nora]

*lighting a smoke*

Uh-huh. Thanks!

Was it good for you?

 

[Dougy]

I should just be supportive here...but really, too much pith not enough ram.

 

[Nora]

hahah!