3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
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Re: 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
#2Why does it have to be only one ancestor ape, and not several that evolved human-like features simultaneously in the same environment?
We have Neanderthal DNA, that we inherited through interbreeding.
Why can't both we and the Neanderthals be descendent from a varied group of very similar apes that interbred as well? Isn't this the most likely scenario?
Sometimes I think scientists fall for the same simplistic patterns of thinking that the men on the street fall for every day.
Like, there is only one solution, there is only one cause, there is only one reason, when in fact reality is much more complex than that.
Re: 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
#3The impression I got from a recent PBS Eons video on the non-existing missing link[0] is that interbreeding happened all the time and that a very realistic possibility for the answer is "most, possibly all of them".
Re: 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
#4Why does it have to be only one ancestor ape, and not several that evolved human-like features simultaneously in the same environment? We have Neanderthal DNA, that we inherited through interbreeding. Why can't both we and the Neanderthals be descendent from a varied group of very similar apes that interbred as well? Isn't this the most likely scenario? Sometimes I think scientists fall for the same simplistic patter…
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Re: 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
#5Nature be damned, this has hoax written all over it.
Re: 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
#6Why does it have to be only one ancestor ape, and not several that evolved human-like features simultaneously in the same environment? We have Neanderthal DNA, that we inherited through interbreeding. Why can't both we and the Neanderthals be descendent from a varied group of very similar apes that interbred as well? Isn't this the most likely scenario? Sometimes I think scientists fall for the same simplistic patter…
This is your own painting with a massive brush. Obviously people who devote a lot of their lives to figuring this stuff out know there is not one solution. It's important to at least create a hierarchy of species that we've evolved from and something will inevitably be closest to our genetic makeup.
Re: 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
#7Why does it have to be only one ancestor ape, and not several that evolved human-like features simultaneously in the same environment? We have Neanderthal DNA, that we inherited through interbreeding. Why can't both we and the Neanderthals be descendent from a varied group of very similar apes that interbred as well? Isn't this the most likely scenario? Sometimes I think scientists fall for the same simplistic patter…
Is it a metaphor problem? That in the language there's still an underlying assumption of a tree-like shape, where a trunk diversifies into many little branches... but of course if you look at an individual and trace backwards, the further you get, the more ancestors you have.
Re: 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
#8The concept of species is a construct of language.
Re: 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
#9Why does it have to be only one ancestor ape, and not several that evolved human-like features simultaneously in the same environment? We have Neanderthal DNA, that we inherited through interbreeding. Why can't both we and the Neanderthals be descendent from a varied group of very similar apes that interbred as well? Isn't this the most likely scenario? Sometimes I think scientists fall for the same simplistic patter…
Is it a metaphor problem? That in the language there's still an underlying assumption of a tree-like shape, where a trunk diversifies into many little branches... but of course if you look at an individual and trace backwards, the further you get, the more ancestors you have.
Yeah, it's a blegg/rube error. The lines between species are a lot blurrier than our nice neat taxonomy would have you believe.
Re: 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia
#10The concept of species is a construct of language.
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