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Title: Fossil Reanalysis Pushes Back Origin of Homo sapiens
Source:
sciam
URL Source: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?ch ... DFE-C0B7-1213-80B783414B7F0000
Published: Feb 17, 2005
Author: unlisted
Post Date: 2005-02-17 05:49:36 by 2Trievers
Keywords: Reanalysis, sapiens, Fossil
Views: 1975
Comments: 185
A new analysis of human remains first discovered in 1967 suggests that they are in fact much older than previously believed. The results, published today in the journal Nature, push back the emergence of our species by nearly 35,000 years. Ian McDougall of the Australian National University in Canberra and his colleagues worked with two well-known fossil finds known as Omo I and Omo II, which were recovered from Ethiopia's Kibish Formation by Richard Leakey. The remains include two partial skulls as well as arm, leg, foot and pelvis bones for Omo I. "Anthropologists said they looked very different in their evolutionary status," remarks study co-author Frank Brown of the University of Utah. "Omo I appeared to be essentially modern Homo sapiens and Omo II appeared to be more primitive." At the time, the bones were dated to 130,000 years ago, based on radioactive decay of uranium and thorium from oyster shells found nearby. This time the scientists returned to the southern Ethiopian site and identified the resting places of both individuals. They also unearthed another part of a femur bone for Omo I that fits together with the original remains. The researchers then analyzed the volcanic ash layers above and below the river sediment that contained the fossils using argon dating. They determined that the rock just below the fossils dated to 196,000 years ago. Because the layers of the Kibish Formation formed quickly during wet seasons that inundated the area with organic matter, the team posits that the bones are only slightly younger than this underlying layer. In addition, a layer of ash more than 150 feet above the burial sites dates to 104,000 years old, putting a limit on their age. Using other evidence, which drained from the Nile and the Omo rivers onto the Mediterranean seafloor, the researchers attest that the Omo fossils are most likely no younger than 190,000 years old. Previously the oldest known traces of our species were fossils from Herto, Ethiopia, that date to about 160,000 years ago. The older age of the Omo remains is concordant with dates suggested by genetic studies for the origin of our species, says study co-author John Fleagle of Stony Brook University. He adds that "as modern human anatomy is documented at earlier and earlier sites, it becomes evident that there was a great time gap between the appearance of the modern skeleton and 'modern' behavior."
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#114. To: Zipporah (#112)
I like the liberation of Miller's idea. It sounds a little predatory, it's just the imagery he uses there, more of a metaphor for feeding the flesh, but yeah, why not? If no one gets hurt, why not do what you want, instead of depending on some extraterrestrial arbiter of Good/Evil with a celestial retirement system?
Oh God...if Hell does have a soundtrack/Muzak system, it'll be Shatner's album playing over and over on an 8 track player with bad speakers.
"... what's all the fuss? Why did I bother?" Heh.
Cold is the absence of heat. Darkness is the absence of light. What we so laughingly call "the problem of evil" bedevils us all, and rightly so. I do not believe that either secular philosophers or religious ones have solved this problem to anyone's satisfaction. The horror of it all is that how easily "good" is transformed into evil. Look at our common history. The Bolsheviks in their civil war created a secular religion based on a theory of class warfare which they believed entitled them to shoot and starve millions of Ukrainian peasants in the name of the greatest good for the greatest number. A thousand years before, the Franks followed the cross across the Mediterranean and laid siege to Antioch in the name of good and true religion and, if Christian sources may be relied upon, took Jerusalem in 1099 slaughtering its inhabitants without regard to sex, age or religion. They stained the name of Christendom in the hearts of the East to this day. In our time, our nation by means of finance and diplomacy, had a large share in fostering war between Iran and Iraq. We used our Department of Agriculture to ship millions of tons of wheat to Saddam who turned that into cash for his war with the Iranians. We facilitated fraudulent loans of many millions of dollars to a man the Defense Department called "a force for stability in the Middle East." Despite the millions given him, Saddam was heavily in debt after the war to people like the Kuwaitis who were encouraged by us to keep the financial pressure on his government, who were encouraged to drill into his oil fields and to goad him into a war that our diplomats hinted to Saddam was none of our business. We know what followed: war, sanctions, more war, and great sacrifice of life and treasure. Each step of the way was sanctioned by a greater good that justified an evil. And that evil was not punished. Instead yet more evil was done, and only the people suffered. Let us take an individual case. That of the Ohio auto worker. Mister John Demjanjuk. He was arrested and called to account in part for crimes committed by a National Socialist regime sixty years ago. He was identified by our government as being a notorious concentration camp guard known for a penchant for brutality and arbitrary acts of homicide. Men in our government knew that he and "Ivan the Terrible" were indeed not the same person, yet they persisted in framing a case that would lead Mister Demjanjuk straight to the hangman's scaffold. Why? Why hang and innocent man? It was to promote the greater good of publicly avenging wrongs that had been done to innocents many years before in absolute disregard of justice and the merits of an individual case. There was a "greater good." I take these examples to show what is obvious, and you and I can think of thousand of others. I highlight these because they are often on my mind and because they tell us something. 1) We are not always sure what good is. 2) Evil may masqueraded as good. 3) Power will always use our moral confusion for its own ends. 4) All our codes and good books are no defense from evil, and they may be turned in the service of evil time and time again. Islam will fail us. Christianity will fail us. Socialism will fail us. Why have I used illustration here and not analogy to make this case? Because I choose to look at the world the way it is. I am looking at forces to see how the operate on subjects and materia. I have used illustration rather then analogy, because analogy is a dangerous logical tool. Analogy is the pedagogue's tool. It is used by pedants in order to acquaint unseasoned minds with concepts that they are not quite ready to grasp in their entirety. Analogy may be legitimately employed by the teacher who knows his subject and may be trusted to lead his student from a level of crude apprehension to that of conceptual mastery. So let us test your analogy. In order to absolve God, whoever he may be, from responsibility for evil, you say that evil is the absence of good as cold is the absence of heat or darkness is the absence of light. But the "agency of evil" used by God to test mankind is not a null set. It is a positive entity. It resides in all our hearts as the victory of self over other. It lives in the lust for power and the exploitation of the suffering of others of one's kind. The problem here is that you cannot remove evil by simply "bringing light." We have had generations of light bringers and we still have evil. In one degree or another we probably always will. Darkness is [i]always[/i] banished by light. Cold is irresistibly vanquished by Heat. But good and evil may exist together, and more often than not reside quite comfortably in the same heart. "Love thy neighbor as thyself"; that is the whole of the law," says Rabbi Hillel. But I wonder if that is enough. It is not enough to love to live lawfully because "love" is an indulgence of the spirit. That same spirit may be equally gratified by the pain or by the pleasure of one's neighbor. Evil is an entity. Not an external one a shaitan, a devil or Satan. It resides within us always, and it is the task of just men to tame it within the bounds of well tested systems of ethics. Evil is an entity whose outlines are not always clear, but which is always knocking at our door. It is not the absence of good. That is where your analogy breaks down. As a last note I might suggest that all of us might be better served setting aside this "problem of evil" and meditating a good long while on answering the question "What is justice?" Because I believe that those throughout history who have labored to answer that question have done more to alleviate mankind's suffering than have the "bringers of light" whose banners always precede our divisions into bloody combat. (The "humanist" sits.)
No man is an island...
True, but I'm working toward peninsular status, and will dig the canal at some later date. What'd you think of randge's essay?
See? There's a bit of Buddha in all of us.
I'll get back to you later .. have to wash my hair ... it hurts.
I'm from the South, people are way more likely to recognize "Bubbha" than "Buddha."
I'll not fault you for that.
The cures of all finite ills are also the causes; every cultural outcome is its own motivation, its own petri dish; every father his own child, and every mary is her own lamb. Science: What you know.
Sort of a Zen way of saying "go **** yourself?" ;) Too much religion talk for Saturday. Six months till football starts again.
Hmmm . . . Now I need to wash my hair.
*sigh ... you'll never get it ..........................Freedom is being free from pro or con.
LOL ...Standing in mankind’s library it was noted: “Leave out the Physical Sciences and it’s all fiction.”
............................and football.
I'm free from all of it, watching a battlefield reconstruction of Agincourt.
That's true. And partly because the "Social Sceinces" have a disregard for facts over and above presumptuous theory. These theories spawn a faulty lexicon and bad logic. The earnest student soon loses allhis bearings. I got out of taking Sociology by taking Economics at school. Traded one sorry discipline for another.
Who's winning??
Very good Capps. what is with me, is the fact that Creationists claim that their myth overrides science, when in fact it is NOT science. Creationism and evolution has absolutely NOTHING in common, one is science based, empirical evidence etc, and Creationism is faith based, and has nothing to with any type of scientific evidence. So, to somehow say that evolution is wrong because of creationism is NONSENSE. To completely disavow science, because of a religious faith is STUPID, it is emotionally based nonsense. Whenever I hear a creationist saying that evolution is wrong because of their religious beliefs, I pounce on that stupidity. It is just the way I am. Evolution is scientific, empirical, falsifiable. If you wish to ba a creationist, WONDERFUL, do, but do not tell others that science is wrong because you BELIEVE something else. I am a Deist, I believe there is a God, not the way that you believe in a God, but I believe there is some Higher being. At the same time, I do not say that evolution is wrong because of my religious beliefs. They are 2 SEPARATE things. Science is science, religion is religion, they have NOTHING in common whatsoever, and one CANNOT and WILL not disprove the other. And until fundamentalists mature enough to make that realization, I will stomp on them whenever I run across them.
... gotta find you a New Hobby. You-could-be-an-oca-rina-salesman-going-from-door-to-door ... The gift of life it's a twist of fate
Bad day for King Harold.
I'm working on a few ideas...
I give you the Good Book. All I want is stereo FM installed in my teeth.
Got MBA?
Whoops, that was Hastings. Anyway, 6000 french guys are lying dead on the field of battle...
I'd want AM/FM installed in my teeth, and an HF transmitter too....LOL And thanks for the book, but I have like 6 different copies of it in my library, alongside a number of other religious texts. I find religion fascinating. As some have said, respect someone who is searching for the truth, doubt those that claim they have found it.
Misheard lyrics...
I love "mondegreens". Even got one published in a collection of them, a copy of the book w/ a nice note from the "author". Mine was from the Eagle's song "Hotel California". "Warm smell of coitus rising up in the air."
I do not believe that evil is an entity.. but evil resides in all men.. men are not basically good but basically evil and they are mankind is predisposed to do evil .. it is a choice.. and it's quite convenient and serves people to disregard or destroy God in their minds as a way to justify their actions....
Got half way through and switched to linguitics.
I agree with you about where evil resides. By saying "evil is an entity" I didn't mean that it was a being like Satan. I meant that evil was not the lack of goodness alone. The propostion that it is the absence of good is part of the comology the writer was trying to present in defence of a God accused of being the author of both good and evil. Evil exists. It's not the lack of something else. What time is the game??
“How do you explain the fact that if men couldn’t talk and write there would be no such thing as sin and the Bible?”
Ah okay.. I misunderstood your meaning.. And I totally agree that evil is not the lack of goodness alone and that evil exists and not the lack of goodness.. athough I do believe that there is an entity that exists that shouldn't be depicted as the opposite of God.. which would put it/him on the same level as God..the antithesis..but it/he would eptomize evil.. but mankind has the choice to do evil which unfortunately is man is 'bent'..
Hmmmmm ... when you find out how to become a "perputal student" and keep a roof over your head ... let me know.
Question your premise. Religion and transgression precede literacy, I'm afraid.
You guys STILL at it???? I'm impressed!
Worked every day through UG and grad school, except for my very last semester. Didn't have time or dough to be a perpetual student though. Wish I had. I'd have done a PhD. I rub academic folks thw wrong way somehow.
I don't know about perpetual student, but I do know some people who have made an art form out of being perpetual pains in the arse. hmmmmm.... I wonder if there's $$$$ in it??? =0)
Where's your sense of humor, jumior?
Now that is one thing I can say from first hand knowledge.. is that her sense of humor will run rings around most..
Comments (155 - 185) not displayed.
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#115. To: 2Trievers (#113)
#116. To: Samuel Gray (#115)
#117. To: 2Trievers (#96)
Evil is the absence of good.
#118. To: Samuel Gray (#114)
If no one gets hurt, why not do what you want, instead of depending on some extraterrestrial arbiter of Good/Evil with a celestial retirement system?
#119. To: Zipporah, randge (#118)
No man is an island...
#120. To: Zipporah (#118)
No man is an island...
#121. To: randge (#117)
#122. To: 2Trievers (#120)
#123. To: Samuel Gray (#122)
I'm from the South.............
#124. To: randge (#117)
1) We are not always sure what good is. 2) Evil may masqueraded as good. 3) Power will always use our moral confusion for its own ends. 4) All our codes and good books are no defense from evil, and they may be turned in the service of evil time and time again. Islam will fail us. Christianity will fail us. Socialism will fail us.
Religion: What you like.
Corollary: If man didn’t know so much there wouldn’t be so much that he dislikes. [Look at all the other species: They only have one item on their “No, No List.”]
#125. To: 2Trievers (#124)
every father his own child
#126. To: 2Trievers (#124)
#127. To: Samuel Gray (#125)
#128. To: randge (#126)
Only a rebel thinker can face that.
#129. To: Samuel Gray (#125)
#130. To: 2Trievers (#129)
#131. To: 2Trievers (#128)
#132. To: Samuel Gray (#130)
#133. To: CAPPSMADNESS (#98)
#134. To: Samuel Gray (#130)
It's a roll of the die
It's a free lunch A free ride
The gift of life it's a shot in the dark
It's the call of the wild
It's the big wheel The big ride .............
#135. To: randge (#132)
#136. To: 2Trievers (#134)
gotta find you a New Hobby.
#137. To: Aric2000 (#133)
And until fundamentalists mature enough to make that realization, I will stomp on them whenever I run across them.
#138. To: randge (#131)
#139. To: All (#135)
#140. To: 2Trievers (#137)
#141. To: Samuel Gray (#136)
#142. To: 2Trievers (#141)
#143. To: Samuel Gray (#119)
#144. To: 2Trievers (#138)
#145. To: Zipporah (#143)
#146. To: Aric2000 (#140)
As some have said, respect someone who is searching for the truth, doubt those that claim they have found it.
#147. To: randge (#145)
By saying "evil is an entity" I didn't mean that it was a being like Satan.
#148. To: randge (#144)
#149. To: 2Trievers (#146)
#150. To: 2Trievers (#148)
#151. To: 2Trievers (#148)
#152. To: 2Trievers (#148)
when you find out how to become a "perputal student" and keep a roof over your head ... let me know.
#153. To: CAPPSMADNESS (#152)
#154. To: randge (#153)
Where's your sense of humor, jumior?
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