Suminia: Life in the Trees 260 Million Years Ago
(Laelaps, May 28, 2010)
When I hear the phrase “early human relative” I cannot help but think of an ape-like creature. Something like Sahelanthropus fits the bill nicely – it may not be a hominin but it is still a close relative from around the time that the first hominins evolved. That is why I was a bit puzzled to see MSNBC.com parroting a story written by the Discovery Channel which proclaimed “Early human relative predates even dinosaurs”! Was this another fossil that would change everything? While not quite as startling as a Precambrian rabbit, a 260-million-year-old-hominin (or even primate) would certainly be a shocker!
The truth of the matter, however, is that the fossil described in the MSNBC story is only a distant relative of humans. Called Suminia getmanovi, it was a synapsid (the diverse group of vertebrates to which mammals and their closest relatives belong) that lived during the Permian in what is now Russia. More specifically, it was an anomodont, or a relative of the tubby Lystrosaurus and the small, tusked Robertia. The attempt to make Suminia relevant to human ancestry, therefore, was a quick and dirty way of grabbing attention, but in this case I think it stirred more confusion than enlightenment.
Read the rest of this entry here:
What is it? – 37 million year old fossil primate puzzles paleontologists
http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2010/05/what_is_it_-_37_million_year_o.php
In the Fayum desert of northern Egypt, not too far from the banks of the Nile, the vestiges of ancient forests are preserved in the sand-covered strata. The fossils are ghosts of a vanished oasis in which prehistoric cousins of modern elephants wallowed in lush wetlands and a host of ancient primatesscrambled through the trees, and despite being known as one of the world’s best fossil sites for over a century paleontologists are continuing to discovery new species from the desert rock. The trouble is that not all these new species are easily classified.
(Laelaps, May 12, 2010)
Do chimps say “no” by shaking their heads?
at 8:02 am on Friday, 7 May 2010
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/do-chimps-say-no-by-shaking-their-heads/
When people study primate behavior with the idea of relating it to human behavior, standards of evidence often seem quite low. There’s a lot of publicity and attention to be gotten by detecting the roots of our behavior in the other apes that are our relatives. Who among us hasn’t been fascinated by going to the zoo, watching a chimp, and saying, “Wow–they’re so much like us!”
This is not to deny that some of our behaviors descend from those of apey ancestors. They do, of course, and Darwin was the first to write about it. But we also have culture that can rapidly transmit un-apelike behaviors across diverse groups (e.g., dancing and making music).
(Why Evolution is True, May 6, 2010)
New australopithecine described
at 1:06 pm on Saturday, 10 April 2010
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/new-australopithecine-described/
Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand and several colleagues will be describing a new species of Australopithecus, A. sediba, from 1.78 to 1.95 million-year-old deposits in South Africa, intomorrow’s issue of Science. The issue will also have a geological article on the find by Paul H.G.M. Dirks of James Cook University, Queensland, and colleagues, and a news item, all available now atScience’s website (plus a podcast and video). The description is based on two partial skeletons, including a well preserved juvenile skull, most of the right arm and shoulder girdle, parts of the hip and leg, and various other bits.
(Why Evolution is True, April 8, 2010)
Fossil skeletons may belong to an unknown human ancestor
at 12:24 pm on Saturday, 10 April 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/apr/08/fossil-skeletons-unknown-human-ancestor
Fossilised skeletons recovered from a deep underground cave in South Africa belong to a previously unknown species of human ancestor, scientists claim.
The partial skeletons of an adult female and a young male, aged 11 or 12, were found lying side by side in sediments that first covered their remains an estimated 1.9m years ago.
The individuals are thought to have fallen into the cave network through a fissure before being carried a few metres by mud or water into a subterranean pool, where they were gradually encased in rock.
(guardian,co.uk, April 8, 2010)
New Hominid Species Discovered in South Africa
at 12:17 pm on Saturday, 10 April 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/science/09fossil.html?pagewanted=2&tntemail1=y&emc=tnt
CRADLE OF HUMANKIND, South Africa — Nine-year-old Matthew Berger dashed after his dog, Tau, into the high grass here one sunny morning, tripped over a log and stumbled onto a major archaeological discovery. Scientists announced Thursday that he had found the bones of a new hominid species that lived almost two million years ago during the fateful, still mysterious period spanning the emergence of the human family.
Dad, I found a fossil!” Matthew said he cried out to his father, Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist, who had been searching for hominid bones just a hill and a half away for almost two decades. Fossil hunters have profitably scoured these rolling grasslands north of Johannesburg since the 1930s.
(NY Times, April8, 2010)
“Ida” not a missing link
at 12:22 pm on Sunday, 7 March 2010
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/ida-not-a-missing-link/
On May 20 of last year, at a remarkable press conference in New York, a group of researchers announced—with much ballyhoo—that they’d found a 47-million-year-old primate fossil named Darwinius masillae(nicknamed “Ida”). Ida, the finest fossil primate in existence, was touted loudly as the missing link between the two major branches of primates, the Haplorhini (anthropoids [apes and monkeys] and tarsiers), and the Strepsirrhini (lemurs and lorises; see figure below). Concurrent with the press conference was a History Channel documentary and a book about Ida, Colin Tudge’s The Link, that proclaimed, with much heavy breathing, that Ida was, as one of the earliest primate ancestors of our own species, an earthshaking discovery (see my review of the book here).
Gorillas ‘ape humans’ over games
at 5:53 am on Tuesday, 26 January 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8474358.stm
Gorillas play competitive games just like humans, according to scientists at the University of St Andrews.
The gorillas at San Francisco Zoo were observed over a period of five years playing with a variety of equipment.
The study found that gorillas like to keep games going and even give younger apes a fair chance to play.
The psychologists said the research would help trace the evolutionary origins of how humans understand each other.
(BBC News, January 22, 2010)
Primate evolution claim challenged
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/56110/
An analysis of 37 million year old primate fossils is fueling a debate over the existence of an evolutionary link between lemur-like and monkey-like primates — a link that could more fully explain human evolution. The study, published in this week’s issue of Nature, challenges the claimthat Darwinius — a rare, almost-complete skeleton whose unveiling caused a media firestorm last May — is the possible stem species to today’s anthropoid primates, which include monkeys, apes, and humans.
 |
| Teeth and jaw remains of Afradapis longicristatus Image: Erik Seiffert et al, Nature 2009 |
“The paper is the first thorough, systematic treatment of the question” of whether there is an ancestral connection between the two primate subgroups, saidChris Beard, chair of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, who was not involved with the research.
(The Scientist.com, October 21, 2009)
Why Humans Outlive Apes
at 10:52 am on Saturday, 19 December 2009
Genetic changes that apparently allow humans to live longer than any other primate may be rooted in a more carnivorous diet.
These changes may also promote brain development and make us less vulnerable to diseases of aging, such as cancer, heart disease and dementia.
(Live Science, December 15, 2009)