The last picture of with all the girl scientists makes me stupidly proud.
Why?
New human-like species discovered
31–40 of 218 posts
Re: New human-like species discovered
#32A number of paleoanthropologists are skeptical of the claims. They say that the bones look like H.erectus and that some of the more bizarre claims sound "tailored for the media"
Do you have links to these claims? I would like to read more.
Re: New human-like species discovered
#33Here is a short video of caver Rick Hunter squeezing through one of the tunnels to the Dinaledi Chamber. Not for the claustrophobic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTPRx8xVafE
Wondering how he got out after that. Gravity will work against him when getting out.
I think he was getting out.
Re: New human-like species discovered
#34The last picture of with all the girl scientists makes me stupidly proud.
I wonder whether they'd like to be called "girl scientists".
Re: New human-like species discovered
#35The Guardian's coverage of this contains a fair amount of scepticism:
Christoph Zollikofer, an anthropologist at the University of Zurich, said that many of the bone characteristics used to claim the creature as a new species are seen in more primitive animals, and by definition cannot be used to define a new species.
“The few ‘unique’ features that potentially define the new species need further scrutiny, as they may represent individual variation, or variation at the population level,” he said.
Tim White, a paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, goes further. “From what is presented here, they belong to a primitive Homo erectus, a species named in the 1800s.”
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“Intentional disposal of rotting corpses by fellow pinheads makes a nice headline, but seems like a stretch to me,” said Jungers. Zollikofer agrees. “The ‘new species’ and ‘dump-the-dead’ claims are clearly for the media. None of them is substantiated by the data presented in the publications,” he said. Hawks is open to other explanations, but said that disposal made sense. “The evidence really tends to exclude the idea that they entered the chamber one at a time, alive, over some time, because we have infants, small children, and very old adults who would almost certainly not have managed to get into this chamber without being deposited there.”
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/10/new-species-o...
Re: New human-like species discovered
#36Wow! That's so cool. I'm especially interested to see whether this is taken as evidence that ritual behaviour emerged far earlier than previously believed.
It's interesting to consider that humans came from apes that randomly starting performing rituals.
There could be any number of incentives, i.e. health benefits. Apes, just like birds, builds nests and this "ritualistic" behaviour could be seen as an extension of cleaning.
Being this calculated about this seemingly arduous task obviously hints at something more advanced than cleaning (i.e. spiritual reasons), I'm just trying to bridge the gap between "calculated rituals" and "random rituals".
Re: New human-like species discovered
#37A number of paleoanthropologists are skeptical of the claims. They say that the bones look like H.erectus and that some of the more bizarre claims sound "tailored for the media"
Do you have links to these claims? I would like to read more.
I just posted a comment with a few quotes from the Guardian's article, and you can read more here:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/10/new-species-o...
Re: New human-like species discovered
#38Re: New human-like species discovered
#39Amazing fly-through video of the Rising Star cave where these discoveries were made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI-JF28T44U
Using a type of subterraneous mapping lasers I imagine as you see some kind of globular markers dotted around the cave as you pass through.
Unable to find exactly what tech they used for this. Would be interesting to hear any more info on this!
Re: New human-like species discovered
#40entirely off-topic: 'Naledi' means 'star' (the celestial kind) in both Tswana and Sotho - 2 of South Africa's 11 official languages[1]. 1. Also included: English and Afrikaans. South Africa is a pretty diverse place https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_South_Africa
Most people speak English to bridge the gaps. At work, in the shops, etc.