How the Human Use of Projectile Weapons Changed the World

Sahelanthropus: The Earliest Bipedal Hominin in Africa

 

Links and References 

 

Our Earliest African Ancestor 

Evidence of Cerebral Reorganization in the Skull of a Seven Million Year Old Human Ancestor 

Was the Swamp Ape Bipedal? 

Higher Levels of Racism and Prejudice Associated with a Disbelief in Human Evolution

Homo erectus pekinensis

 

According to University of Massachusetts Amherst research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a  disbelief in human evolutionary biology in the US was associated with higher levels of racism and prejudice including  support for discriminatory behavior against immigrants, people of African ancestry,  and the LGBTQ community. Similar patterns of racism and prejudice have also been associated with lack of belief in human evolution by individuals living in Europe and in the Middle East.

Links and References

Bigotry and the human–animal divide: (Dis)belief in human evolution and bigoted attitudes across different cultures.

Disbelief in human evolution linked to greater prejudice and racism

David Attenborough on the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

 

 

 Links and References

 BBC Radio: Sir David Attenborough on the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

Evidence of Cerebral Reorganization in the Skull of a Seven Million Year Old Human Ancestor

Skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis (credit  Didier Descouens)

During the  82nd annual meeting  of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists on April 2 of  2013, an international group of scientist presented strong evidence that the 7 million year old North African fossil hominoid (humans and apes), Sahelanthropus tchadensis,  possessed numerous cranial features in it's brainstem, occipital lobes, and prefrontal cortex that are characteristic of hominins (humans the bipedal fossil relatives of humans). The reconstructed endocast of Sahelanthropus  was compared with other fossil apes, modern apes, australopithecines, and modern humans. The results of the  volumetric, linear and angular measurements strongly suggest that Sahelanthropus was indeed the earliest African human ancestor.

Since its discovery, some researchers were bothered by the early date of Sahelanthropus. The oldest fossil sahelanthropines are dated somewhere between 6.8 million and 7.2 million years before the present. Such an early hominin is particularly troublesome to those who are strict advocates of the molecular clock hypothesis which typically dates the human-chimpanzee divergence at less than 6 million years ago. However, there has been strong evidence that the molecular clock runs faster  in small  animals and, correspondingly,  slower in larger ones. Evidence of slower running molecular clocks have also been found in apes relative to monkeys.  So no molecular clock dates for human and ape divergences can really  be taken seriously unless the slower rate of mutation in humans and apes is accounted for.

The argument by some researchers that Sahelanthropus is more ape-like than hominid-like can also be quickly dispelled. When the skull of Sahelanthropus is compared with modern humans, modern apes, and the fossil australopithecines: the bipedal australopithecines have 14 significant cranial-dental similarities with Sahelanthropus,  humans, 10, chimps and gorillas, only 5, the orangutan, only 4, and the gibbon only 3 cranial-dental similarities to Sahelanthropus.

Click above to see table

Curiously, a slightly earlier swamp ape, Oreopithecus bambolii of Italy, had 15 significant cranial-dental similarities with Sahelanthropus. Oreopithecus was also the earliest bipedal hominoid in the fossil record. This fossil Italian  ape lived in geographic isolation on the  Mediterranean island of Tuscany-Sardinia  for at least 2 million years. Sahelanthropus suddenly appears in the fossil record in North Africa just around the time when Tuscany became part of the Italian peninsula  which was also during a time when  Italy was  was geographically connected to North Africa after global sea levels began to fall between 7.2 and 7.1 million years ago. Global sea levels continued to fall, eventually isolating the Mediterranean basin from the Atlantic Ocean around 6.1 million years ago.

References:

The endocast of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, the earliest known hominid (7 Ma, Chad)

Brain Shape Confirms Controversial Fossil as Oldest Human Ancestor

Confirmed: 7 Million Year Old Skull Belonged To Oldest Human Ancestor

Our Earliest African Ancestor

The Aquatic Ape Theory

Desmond Morris on the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis 

David Attenborough on the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

Watch Chimps wading through water on two feet.wmv in Educational | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Morphological evidence of marine adaptations in human kidneys.

Was Man More Aquatic In The Past? Fifty Years After Alister Hardy - Waterside Hypotheses Of Human Evolution AAT · Littoral adaptations in the genus Homo


AAT · Littoral adaptations in the genus Homo

Paleoprimatology & Human Evolution

Since 1999, Paleoprimatology and Human Evolution has been a forum for the scientific discussion of paleoanthropology, paleoprimatology, physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, stone age archaeology, human origins, primate biology, and primate evolution.

If you're interested in discussing practically all aspects of human and primate biology and evolution then you can join this interesting group at:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/paleoanthropology/

Marcel F. Williams

Desmond Morris on the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

David Attenborough on the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/02/david-attenborough-on-aquatic-ape.html

New info on the early hominin: Ardipithecus

Ardipithecus remains go back as far as 5.8 million years ago to as young as 4.4 million years ago. On Friday, Science magazine will present 11 papers detailing what we now know about this ancient late Miocene/early Pliocene hominin. It appears to have walked bipedal but with a highly divergent big toe. The only creature that I know of that also walked bipedally in this fashion was the late Miocene hominoid, Oreopithecus bambolii.

Read the latest info and watch a fascinating video on Ardipithecus at:

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1001/1



Credits: Illustration by J.H. Matternes