Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on June 08, 2017, 10:29:54 AM
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Possibly an older specimen of Homo sapiens than we previously knew of. On the requisite tangent, "green Sahara". Three hundred thousand years ago, and that's climate people.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/06/08/scientists-find-oldest-known-specimens-human-species.html
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Possibly an older specimen of Homo sapiens than we previously knew of. On the requisite tangent, "green Sahara". Three hundred thousand years ago, and that's climate people.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/06/08/scientists-find-oldest-known-specimens-human-species.html
What I find interesting is that this is now challenging (if people would follow the implications) the theory that humans originated in East Africa. If humans were further west and north long before the site of the "original" humans, it seems to me we have absolutely no idea where humans originated, no?
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What I find interesting is that this is now challenging (if people would follow the implications) the theory that humans originated in East Africa. If humans were further west and north long before the site of the "original" humans, it seems to me we have absolutely no idea where humans originated, no?
Indeed. Coincidentally, I'm currently reading Robert Kaplan's "The Revenge of Geography", which fast forwards a few hundred thousand years give or take, and also outlines reasons why interior sub-saharan Africa was not conducive to the expansion of humans and civilization, unlike more amenable landscapes at different latitudes with fewer physical barriers.
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Relocating the origins of humans?
Sounds racist to me.
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Indeed. Coincidentally, I'm currently reading Robert Kaplan's "The Revenge of Geography", which fast forwards a few hundred thousand years give or take, and also outlines reasons why interior sub-saharan Africa was not conducive to the expansion of humans and civilization, unlike more amenable landscapes at different latitudes with fewer physical barriers.
My immediate thought was that the "Cradle of Civilization" may also have been the "Cradle of human life". Would make sense that the place humans started also built civilization faster. (Judging by how "frontiers" tend to work in more recent history.)
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Really interesting, thanks for posting.
The earliest known hominoid fossils were found further south though, right?
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My immediate thought was that the "Cradle of Civilization" may also have been the "Cradle of human life". Would make sense that the place humans started also built civilization faster. (Judging by how "frontiers" tend to work in more recent history.)
The confluence of the Pishon and Gihon, and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
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My immediate thought was that the "Cradle of Civilization" may also have been the "Cradle of human life". Would make sense that the place humans started also built civilization faster. (Judging by how "frontiers" tend to work in more recent history.)
From shows I have seen, it would be wherever conditions existed that challenged them to evolve, organize, and be smarter.
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From shows I have seen, it would be wherever conditions existed that challenged them to evolve, organize, and be smarter.
This. The cushiest place to live may not have enough selection pressures to move things along.
A lot of things in the human physique are well suited to being a omnivore, who practices at least partial persistence-hunting in hot climates. Some of the most efficient endurance locomotion of any animal on the planet, the ability to sweat and manage heat etc.
So while finding a new fossil find, and a new "oldest" this or that in the family tree of the Hominids will change some parts of the story, I doubt the overall broad plot-lines, that we originated somewhere in Africa is going to change a ton. People don't have a very good grasp of "deep time". Even the paleontologists who dig these things up, most of them probably don't really comprehend it on a gut-level.
When you start dealing in even "small" chunks of geological time, that's more than plenty for any group of humans or proto-humans to get just about anywhere in Africa and Eurasia, just through natural drift of where they were living, not even counting intentional migrations.
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From shows I have seen, it would be wherever conditions existed that challenged them to evolve, organize, and be smarter.
So.... anywhere EXCEPT Armed Polite Society...
:rofl: :rofl:
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This. The cushiest place to live may not have enough selection pressures to move things along.
A lot of things in the human physique are well suited to being a omnivore, who practices at least partial persistence-hunting in hot climates. Some of the most efficient endurance locomotion of any animal on the planet, the ability to sweat and manage heat etc.
So while finding a new fossil find, and a new "oldest" this or that in the family tree of the Hominids will change some parts of the story, I doubt the overall broad plot-lines, that we originated somewhere in Africa is going to change a ton. People don't have a very good grasp of "deep time". Even the paleontologists who dig these things up, most of them probably don't really comprehend it on a gut-level.
When you start dealing in even "small" chunks of geological time, that's more than plenty for any group of humans or proto-humans to get just about anywhere in Africa and Eurasia, just through natural drift of where they were living, not even counting intentional migrations.
Considering entire civilizations have been lost in time, it should surprise anyone that we don't know everything. All we can do is make educated guesses using the information we have. That is why I am always a bit surprised when some of these guys act like the current estimations are written in stone.
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What this means is that we're all going to need a new toner cartridge and a ream of paper to update the family tree.
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They could have saved a lot of research grant money if they'd just come here first and poked around a bit. We have some of the oldest homo sapiens right here on APS. Real caveman types.
edited to remove extraneous word
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Ugh. Ndimf. Midskem! Bmawak. Temoku. Ffffstfu. Fffawt.
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Ugh. Ndimf. Midskem! Bmawak. Temoku. Ffffstfu. Fffawt.
COVFEFE!!!
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From the title, I was half expecting a story on Larry King.
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I've always wondered why people seem to think in terms of "one time" or "one place" for the origin of any species or characteristic --or, indeed, life itself.
In terms of "deep time" and vast geographical areas, there seems to be no reason to assume that whatever Goldilocks circumstances which occured here, in this place and time, and led to some change, are unique.