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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

#121

Post by restalis »

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…

Add that that humans millions years ago were not in billions as today. They were actually in very small numbers, like tens of thousands on the entire planet.

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

#122

Post by cm2187 »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #110
cm2187 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could argue the contrary. When some construction is going on in Europe, if something is found in the ground, there is a high chance it will result in a scientific excavation. When construction goes on in Africa (when it even does) I doubt the project will be interrupted often to call scientists. So there should be a selection bias toward developped countries in finding remains in the ground.

that was my point, sorry if it wasn't clear can't edit now: that there should be more finds in Europe due all the construction going on

But what I mean is slightly different. That the fact that we find these rare bones in Europe but not in Africa may have more to do with less scientific excavations going on in Africa than with the species not being present in Africa at that period.

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

#123

Post by LoSboccacc »

cm2187 wrote: post #122
LoSboccacc wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that was my point, sorry if it wasn't clear can't edit now: that there should be more finds in Europe due all the construction going on

But what I mean is slightly different. That the fact that we find these rare bones in Europe but not in Africa may have more to do with less scientific excavations going on in Africa than with the species not being present in Africa at that period.

ah sorry, now I get you

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

#124

Post by funkyy »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #117
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?

This news being offensive to him might mean he is a racist. No sane person would take this title as offensive.

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

#125

Post by restalis »

gatlinnewhouse wrote: post #18
rosser wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They found some fossils, including jawbones and teeth, in Greece belonging to an evolutionary ancestor of homo sapiens sapiens that seem to be older than those found elsewhere.

Hmm. Isn't Mesopotamia like the "cradle of civilization," and Greece is far but not terribly far from Mesopotamia. While shocking news, maybe the first civilizations came from Mesopotamia/Mediterranean Sea area because people had been there the longest?

Judging from all the existing fossils, one can assume that the prehumans started shifting into humans somewhere around East Mediterranean, but still got to Africa first and evolved there. Somewhere much later, after some migration waves of other species of humans, came the Homo Sapiens Sapiens' turn - they left Africa and only then presumably got into that final continuous settlements around Mesopotamia.

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

#126

Post by LyndsySimon »

nandemo wrote: post #85
davewasthere wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have chimps, and we have humans. But both of us share a common ancestor. At some point, we split into two different evolutionary lines. And it's _where_, geographically, we split that is under some investigation. Current school of thought, we think that man originated in Africa. But this recent finding (based off of a partial skull fragment) shows that non-chimp pre-humans existed in Europe, possibly hundreds of t…

How do they know it's an ancestor instead of just a node that has a common ancestor with Homo sapiens?

I don't think they do, and I didn't see a claim in the article that this species is a direct ancestor of homo sapiens - only that we are very closely related and that they were found where we didn't expect them to be.

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

#127

Post by Bakary »

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…

I did not downvote you myself (pinkie swear?) but since you asked, it's a little strange that you would immediately assume that the article was upvoted because of an ideological viewpoint.

Your meaning is not clear but based on the context it seems likely that you are implying that a group of caucasians have upvoted the article because they desperately want humanity to have come from Europe. If this is the sentiment that led you to post, then it is more than a little ironic.

For the record, I did upvote the story simply because it was interesting.

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

#128

Post by pandaman »

rosser wrote: post #108
pandaman wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I have been searched through customs in different countries. I have not been in a traffic stop ever but I had been under fire (from military, not quite police so maybe not as scary?), does it count? > Please tell me about all the times your value as a human being has been determined solely based upon your appearance. I imagine you did not think this one through, you are actually implying my value as a human bei…

> I have all rights to be afraid of racist cops of different color. Especially if they're racist against you, of course you do. That's the point. Please see my reply to 'flukus's comment that is a sibling to yours. > I am not a woman so my chances of assault and murder are way higher... I was speaking primarily of domestic violence. If you give any kind of credence to the statistics about how under-reported that is,…

I am not sure I understand. Are you saying there is no racism against whites or it does not exist in the US so, in fact, I should not be afraid of anti-white racists?

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

#129

Post by MisterBastahrd »

flukus wrote: post #92
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your entire line of reasoning is borderline moronic. You don't like talking about white privilege because some white people feel like they don't get enough credit because they're white. Meanwhile people of color suffer from real racism, both colloquial and institutional. Sure, it's socioeconomic too, but that's because for many, they're 3 generations from having the right to representation and 5 from having any human…

Now you've linked a 10 million year old fossil to police shootings, proving that the original comment was toxic. Thanks for making my point for me!

I'm not the precious snowflake worried about how acknowledging the reality of racism in society will hurt my feelings.

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

#130

Post by valuearb »

pjreddie wrote: post #11
dgellow wrote: post #5

Could someone "explain like I'm five" the article?

They found two really old skeletons in Europe that are older than other skeletons. They are skeletons of a "modern"-ish human. 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. The older skeleton is 1 million years older than old skeletons found in Africa. So now the oldest skeletons that we know about come from Europe not Africa, rai…

They weren't skeletons of "modern-ish" humans, they were primitive hominin, i.e. a group that includes Chimps, humans, and Australopithecus.
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