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Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

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Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#111

Post by dirktheman »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #81
rosser wrote: post #20

TL;DR: They found some fossils in Greece and Bulgaria, the jaws and teeth of which suggest they belonged to an evolutionary ancestor of Homo sapiens sapiens , and which seem to be older than any other such fossil records. "If this status is confirmed by additional fossil evidence, Graecopithecus would be the oldest known hominin..." where hominin is defined in the paper to mean "humans and their non-ape ancestors". E…

it's weird to find just one fossil, with all the excavations going on and around in Europe.

There are roughly about 200 Neanderthal/Denisovan/older skeletons (whole or partially) found. Or, according to 'A short history of nearly everything', the amount of bones of our ancient ancestors fit in the back of a small pickup truck.

Let that sink in: over 4 million years of human history, and all remains we have found fit in the back of a pickup truck.

Scientists draw conclusions based on evidence found, but truth is, we really don't know that much about our ancestors. The vast majority of bones don't fossilize and just decay. You can excavate all you want, but it takes very specific circumstances for organic material to be preserved over a course of hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Most of it is just gone.

Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#112

Post by tremon »

gatlinnewhouse wrote: post #21
ry_ry wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe" I have no idea what that even says :(

I'll take a stab "Evolutionary Ancestors of Modern Humans Originate from Greece Instead of Africa"

"Potential Avolutionary Ancestors of Modern Humans Theorized outside of Africa"

Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#113

Post by sheepmullet »

dragonwriter wrote: post #109
sheepmullet wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every single black man who has "made it" in America still sits his child down before they Haha nice one!! Black kids don't get to spend time with their fathers. Feminists made sure of that.

> Black kids don't get to spend time with their fathers All too often true, but... > Feminists made sure of that. I think you have the "war on some drugs, especially those in the possession of non-whites" confused with "feminists".

The vast majority of the 80%+ of black fathers who have been kicked out of the family home have nothing to do with the drug game.

Why are you so biased against black men?

Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#114

Post by drKarl »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #13

The title is misleading (as written on HN) because the meaning of "hominim" is more to do with what we, humans, and other hominim (like neanderthals etc) evolved from. See linked chart: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yEUEavwMSCE/ULtMp3e_cVI/AAAAAAAAAD... This isn't our specific species but rather whatever we and similar species evolved from. I'm absolutely no expert on the subject. I actually find the title offensive if I…

Could you elaborate on why exactly do you find it offensive, and what are the world views you think upvoters have that they want to support?

Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#115

Post by krona »

Kiro wrote: post #53
rubyn00bie wrote: post #13

The title is misleading (as written on HN) because the meaning of "hominim" is more to do with what we, humans, and other hominim (like neanderthals etc) evolved from. See linked chart: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yEUEavwMSCE/ULtMp3e_cVI/AAAAAAAAAD... This isn't our specific species but rather whatever we and similar species evolved from. I'm absolutely no expert on the subject. I actually find the title offensive if I…

How is it offensive?

Anthropological appropriation?

(I hope I haven't just invented a microaggression)

Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#116

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

drKarl wrote: post #114
rubyn00bie wrote: post #13

The title is misleading (as written on HN) because the meaning of "hominim" is more to do with what we, humans, and other hominim (like neanderthals etc) evolved from. See linked chart: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yEUEavwMSCE/ULtMp3e_cVI/AAAAAAAAAD... This isn't our specific species but rather whatever we and similar species evolved from. I'm absolutely no expert on the subject. I actually find the title offensive if I…

Could you elaborate on why exactly do you find it offensive, and what are the world views you think upvoters have that they want to support?

I'm very curious to hear an answer to that question, too.

Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#117

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #13

The title is misleading (as written on HN) because the meaning of "hominim" is more to do with what we, humans, and other hominim (like neanderthals etc) evolved from. See linked chart: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yEUEavwMSCE/ULtMp3e_cVI/AAAAAAAAAD... This isn't our specific species but rather whatever we and similar species evolved from. I'm absolutely no expert on the subject. I actually find the title offensive if I…

How on earth this title could be offensive? Why does it make you offended?

For several years we were tracing the beginnings of mankind to Africa. Now there is another source in Europe. In the future other sources might be discovered. How is it offensive? What does it change for you?

Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#118

Post by trhway »

not_that_noob wrote: post #62

The human evolutionary 'tree' is very tangled, and evidence exists for the emergence of homonim from Africa, some of which moved into Europe, and some of which could have then possibly migrated back to Africa. As sea levels rose and fell, new routes were forged or land disappeared, enabling all this back and forth. Homo Sapiens is a descendant of this tree, and emerged from Africa. So that has not changed. What they…

>So the potential explanation is that this or a descendant found its way to Africa, and then gave rise eventually to Homo Sapiens.

given that Mediterranean dried out completely about 1M years later, back then there weren't 2 different things - Europe and Africa - like today, just a huge valley where may be a large part of our ancestors' evolution took place.

Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#119

Post by weavie »

metafunctor wrote: post #84
insulanian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They know because the teeth of the skeletons have a specific thing that the teeth of humans have but not the teeth of other primates. What is the "specific thing"?

I don't care to explain like to a five year old, but the authors of the paper propose that only the modern human lineage have a total of four premolars in the lower jaw with a single root each. They claim these were never present in other hominid species.

I was under the impression that it was because humans learned to control fire, meaning we could eat softer food which altered the human teeth. However, 7.2m years massively predates our current understanding of when fire was first utilised..

Re: Scientists find 7.2M-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

#120

Post by mowenz »

dirktheman wrote: post #111
LoSboccacc wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's weird to find just one fossil, with all the excavations going on and around in Europe.

There are roughly about 200 Neanderthal/Denisovan/older skeletons (whole or partially) found. Or, according to 'A short history of nearly everything', the amount of bones of our ancient ancestors fit in the back of a small pickup truck. Let that sink in: over 4 million years of human history, and all remains we have found fit in the back of a pickup truck. Scientists draw conclusions based on evidence found, but trut…

>Most of it is just gone.

Ive wondered if over a very long period of time it might be possible for our descendants to build a simulation which can aproximate the entropy difference b/w now and our past on earth. Or if such calculations would be forever practically impossible, even given enormous power, i.e. a computer harnessing the power of the sun

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