dagblog - Comments for "New Fossils May Redraw Human Ancestry"

Just wanted to say that I

artappraiser — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:51:55 +0000

In reply to All who have examined these

Just wanted to say that I found your comment especially helpful in understanding the situation, so thanks.

without interviewing the

Verified Atheist — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:01:02 +0000

In reply to All who have examined these

without interviewing the subject!

Give it time… Is there enough DNA to start working on a clone?

All who have examined these

NCD — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:42:46 +0000

In reply to New Fossils May Redraw Human Ancestry

All who have examined these fossils agree that the find of such a complete specimen from one species, 2 skulls, teeth, foot, hand, pelvis with a confusing mix of ape and homo traits show that (1) if you just find a tooth, a hand or a pelvis (which is often the case) you won't be able to say for sure 'it must be homo', it may or may not be. (2) paleontologists need to figure out what trait(s) distinguish homo, (as they have with mammals-lower dentary = one bone). It may be we will never find or figure out which collection of bones was the absolute first homo species, or even agree on which traits are necessary to say we have a homo species (without interviewing the subject!).

Agreed. I like Wade's

acanuck — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:15:43 +0000

In reply to the operative word here is

Agreed. I like Wade's explanation:

As is common in the field of paleoanthropology, the discoverer of a new fossil is seeking to place it as close as possible to the direct line of human descent, while others are resisting that interpretation.

Dr. Berger's only human, as are his fellow scientists and New York Times readers. All of us instinctively attach far more importance to our own ancestry than to some now-extinct branch of the ape family. Totally unscientific, but there it is.

What this discovery demonstrates to me is that the same evolutionary forces that turned one line of australopithicenes into humans continued to reshape other lines that did not. Evolution didn't develop with the human race as its goal. In fact, if our line had died out, there would probably still be bloggers and rocket scientists and palaeoanthropologists today -- and Berger's claim would be true. He just wouldn't be around to make it.

the operative word here is

Elusive Trope — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 05:28:09 +0000

In reply to New Fossils May Redraw Human Ancestry

the operative word here is "may" as in "may redraw." The evidence given our understanding how evolution works, specifically the reality of growth of brain size, says Berger's claim is most likely off the mark.