I'm surprised how much variations there are in the dating of the fossils. At first it's 40'000 years, then 160'000, then between 280'000 and 350'000.
Can someone explain to me why there's so much difference?
Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
31–40 of 58 posts
Re: Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
#32Coincidently I've been reading and youtubing about human evolution recently. If anyone's interested here are some bullet point facts that may surprise other laymen. * In the last few years the Out Of Africa theory (modern humans originated solely in Africa) has received stiff competition from the Multi Regional theory. Namely that waves of human species have left Africa since we diverged from chimpanzees 4 million ye…
I'm reading the book Sapiens right now, which I highly recommend. Lots of interesting facts. But also a broad explanation of the theory of human development. Most interesting fact I learned: At one point there were as many as 6 human species (Homo sapiens, homo errectus, etc) on earth at the same time!
I really really recommend the sequel of Sapiens, Homo Deus. I can't really describe it in words.
Re: Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
#33Coincidently I've been reading and youtubing about human evolution recently. If anyone's interested here are some bullet point facts that may surprise other laymen. * In the last few years the Out Of Africa theory (modern humans originated solely in Africa) has received stiff competition from the Multi Regional theory. Namely that waves of human species have left Africa since we diverged from chimpanzees 4 million ye…
Do you happen to have a good source handy on the growing acceptance of the Multi-Regional theory vs the Out of Africa theory? This is obviously a topic with political implications so looking for something that is accepted as a neutral source.
Re: Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
#34I've never really grasped where the surprise comes from with these kinds of discoveries - we know that our ancestry always had the potential to give rise to lines that look very much like us, since we look very much like us. Why should it be a surprise if it happened more than once? We're looking at a terribly long timescale, after all - at least by comparison to our recorded history.
I think how you attribute the surprise matters. The order of discoveries brought forth a conventional story that stood for a seemingly long time. Now that story may need to be re-examined.
There is a difference between the discovery & subsequent scientific reports and the story drawn from them. The story is less accurate, tends to be more romantic and gets the widest exposure. Even the scientists subscribe to one version or another because they are human. The likely change in the common story is the source of the surprise and excitement.
This process guarantees that there will always be a surprise, and roughly speaking it will be directly proportional to how long the story has been in place and inversely proportional to the number of such competing stories.
Re: Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
#35Coincidently I've been reading and youtubing about human evolution recently. If anyone's interested here are some bullet point facts that may surprise other laymen. * In the last few years the Out Of Africa theory (modern humans originated solely in Africa) has received stiff competition from the Multi Regional theory. Namely that waves of human species have left Africa since we diverged from chimpanzees 4 million ye…
You missed what is probably the most important thing about human evolution and that is due to the rapid population rise after the invention of argriculture more human evolution has happened in the last 10,000 years than the previous million.
The other is that human population is filled with new genes that are under positive selection which have only partially spread through the population. Humans are probably the worst species to study genetically as all the normal assumptions you need to make don't hold.
One minor nitpick, your evidence of the oldest oral tradition is not very strong as there are only four major points on the compass. The likelihood of chance and cherry-picking is high.
Re: Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
#36Coincidently I've been reading and youtubing about human evolution recently. If anyone's interested here are some bullet point facts that may surprise other laymen. * In the last few years the Out Of Africa theory (modern humans originated solely in Africa) has received stiff competition from the Multi Regional theory. Namely that waves of human species have left Africa since we diverged from chimpanzees 4 million ye…
Do you happen to have a good source handy on the growing acceptance of the Multi-Regional theory vs the Out of Africa theory? This is obviously a topic with political implications so looking for something that is accepted as a neutral source.
It is not a case of one or the other, they are both right. All non-Africans are a hybrid between Africans and Neanderthals or Africans/Neanderthals/Denisovans.
You are right that this topic is politically sensitive - so sensitive that the data is basically ignored outside of science.
Re: Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
#37I'm surprised how much variations there are in the dating of the fossils. At first it's 40'000 years, then 160'000, then between 280'000 and 350'000. Can someone explain to me why there's so much difference?
Carbon dating is a flawed concept.
Re: Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
#38Coincidently I've been reading and youtubing about human evolution recently. If anyone's interested here are some bullet point facts that may surprise other laymen. * In the last few years the Out Of Africa theory (modern humans originated solely in Africa) has received stiff competition from the Multi Regional theory. Namely that waves of human species have left Africa since we diverged from chimpanzees 4 million ye…
You missed what is probably the most important thing about human evolution and that is due to the rapid population rise after the invention of argriculture more human evolution has happened in the last 10,000 years than the previous million. The other is that human population is filled with new genes that are under positive selection which have only partially spread through the population. Humans are probably the wor…
> your evidence of the oldest oral tradition is not very strong as there are only four major points on the compass. The likelihood of chance and cherry-picking is high.
I think the point is that the palms are introduced (not native) more than their cardinal direction (i dont believe they were using a western compass at the time so as to have four directions)
Re: Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
#39I'm surprised how much variations there are in the dating of the fossils. At first it's 40'000 years, then 160'000, then between 280'000 and 350'000. Can someone explain to me why there's so much difference?
Carbon dating is a flawed concept.
They're obviously not using carbon dating. The ages are too big.
IIRC The half life of carbon 14 is too short to distinguish samples that have been decaying for 50k years from background noise. You have to use other kinds of radiometric dating instead.
Re: Fossils from Morocco complicate the story of modern humans
#40I've never really grasped where the surprise comes from with these kinds of discoveries - we know that our ancestry always had the potential to give rise to lines that look very much like us, since we look very much like us. Why should it be a surprise if it happened more than once? We're looking at a terribly long timescale, after all - at least by comparison to our recorded history.
Evolution is not linear. At each step there are multiple choices. If you split a population, each one will have different problems in it's environment to solve or they may "find" different solutions to the same problems. After some time the changes in the ADN make the two population incompatible for reproduction, so they become different species. [An easy case is when the number of chromosomes changes in one of the p…
> After some time the changes in the ADN make the two population incompatible for reproduction, so they become different species.
The time scales being discussed here are orders of magnitude too short to even consider speciation, evidenced by what we know about our human/Neanderthal hybrid ancestors, and the fact that a Pygmy or Khoi-San person can have viable offspring with any person of the opposite gender in the human diaspora today.