This is not the first time two hominid species have lived side-by-side. The fact that the two hominid species lived together in the same lake basin for so long and remained separate species, according to Meave Leakey, "suggests that they had their own ecological niche, thus avoiding direct competition." She probably meant hunting, foraging, food obtainment, dietary differences, water sources, may have varied enough to make competition or war, highly unseemly. In any case, Leakey said, "Their co-existence makes it unlikely that Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis."
Spoor, speaking from a location near the site, said the evidence clearly contradicted previous ideas of human evolution "as one strong, single line from early to us." The new findings, he added, support the revised interpretations of "a lot of bushiness and experimentation in the fossil record," rather than a more linear succession of species. This is close to my assertions in 1972-1973, of a flesh and blood sketch pad of singular or near singular, but only vaguely related species arising in some form/system/process, as yet unknown to us, or at last only vaguely hinted at, but deep thinkers who are more likely philosophers or bio-theologians-and for the Wikepediacs, the fast fix, non-academics, who lack graduate degrees in Either branch of anthropology, NO, I am NOT speaking of DIRECT CREATION, from lumps of clay, and female ribs!
However, Spoor said the second fossil, the 1.5 million year old erectus skull, was probably the more surprising discovery. The bones are unusually well preserved. "What is truly striking about this fossil is its size," he said. "It is the smallest Homo erectus found thus far anywhere in the world." The scientists reported that the individual was a young adult or late teen. Its size was closer to that of a H. habilis than any known erectus fossils. However, the distinctions noted at the outset of this article, are clearly telling, to these expert scientists, at least.
In the past, most H. erectus fossils had displayed H. erectus as the first human ancestor very much like Homo sapiens, except for a smaller brain case. However, with this find, mainly the skull's small size, scientists concluded that Homo erectus might have been, in one important respect, a bit less humanlike than had been thought.
Homo Erectus was thought to follow Homo habilis (2.6/2.3-1.6 million years BP) with Homo erectus appearing at about 1.8 to 0.3 million years ago. Now, however, their seemingly to live somewhat in harmony at an overlap of about 200,000-to 500,000 years, changes a good many things, some seeming to the non-scientist to have little to do with either species. However, as I pointed out some time back while still a graduate assistant, flora and fauna of that period and following, depending upon the population of the two species and their food choices, may well have changed forever, the environment of the areas in which they lived and roamed. In so doing, it presents to our era challenges, which, by choice or instinct, were begun eons before the introduction of Homo sapiens.
How Will This Effect Evolution and Creationism? At this point, that is difficult to say. I see, ass yet, no direct evidence of direct Creationism in all of this, I see, as in evolution, as in every science, perhaps some blind allies. Which means some open-windowed open-mindedness, is called for on both sides, but as thus far I see not a leg on which to stand for the Direct Creationist Seven Days of 24 hours each, idea. Am I a Fundamentalist? No? Do I have a problem with anthropology? If I did I would not have begun to study it, would not have won a Ford Foundation Fellowship in it, would not have been appointed a lecturing Graduate Assistanceship in it, and would not have achieved high grades in it in Graduate school, I would have gone into a seminary. Was I ever an atheist? For a brief time, I spent more years as an agnostic. Am I believer in God? Yes, now I am. Am I a supporter of the anti-science, Christian Right, Direct Creationism? No. I do support a God who is a scientist, physicist and which allowed Creation, through a gradual process tied to the laws of Physics and mathematics, which He created, observed and usually did not break, much of which laws I fear we are not yet aware, for if we were, as Einstein lamented, we would now have the answer to the simple elegant, unifying, principle, which he and others have sought and failed to find. However, late news points to the possibility of that knowledge beginning to surface.
I have had, non-religious reservations, not with the theory, which I think is brilliant, but with lack of mathematical efficacy. (Often a deduction can be in error, but brilliantly constructed). The "Evidence" is, at best, in the case of many species, man included, is to a person of exactingly exquisite and precise calculations, highly, problematic, mootable. It reminds me much of the kind of evidence, some prosecutors use in attempts to frame husbands or wives, in cases of murders of one or the other. The "evidence" which I saw, during my Ford Fellowship Foundation Recipient Awards years, seemed to me, (I was at the time an transitioning from atheist to agnostic), as circumstantial as belief in a Supreme Being-still does, to anyone lacking tangible, first-hand knowledge and visual evidence, but more so, now.
Now lest the hostile, disrespectful, less educated, snotty, new kids on the block, (who remind me a lot of The fascist Bushites, far more than they remind me of Liberal, Progressive Democrats) or the veteran Wikepediacs-the un-guru's, who are the Jacks of all Science, Masters of None, (that is why they call it a Masters Degree, it means one has Mastered the discipline, well enough to teach it to others who have at least gotten a bachelors degree in the discipline, with very high grades to qualify for entry to the class) come flying out of the woodwork, with pie-in-the-sky, simplistic, disrespectful, one stop, five minutes of research, which they, much like the Fundamentalists, who do not even know the languages, wish to pit against decades of study, quotes from the above, less than scientific source, may I remind them, that I have read and studied ALL the books available, spoken with the best in the field, spent years in deep and prolonged study with men and women of impeccable credentials, and began as a professed, non-believer/non-non-believer (agnostic), and I, also have access to online shortcut services the same ones they have and many more, and I remain unimpressed with those sources and without in-depth knowledge of ALL of the factors, which takes years to absorb, and subjugate/decline/translate and develop, online quick-fixes fix nothing, if they could there would be no need either for college or graduate schools, and that sort of disrespect for higher education and science, places the Un-guru-Wickapediac-only, in the same camp as the Bushites Fundamentalist, anti-science, anti-higher education, saw-dust brains.
Anthropology, is a great, if often flawed science, mainly because it is more hamstrung than Astrophysics, because it has only partial dead evidence for it's earliest targets, while the latter still has access to living audio/visual samples of their line of study, which are mostly still intact, therefore can be used for certain aspects of study and are a wealth of vastly and still extant living evidence.
Now, where does that leave us? It leaves me in a far better position than I was as a new graduate student, challenging the traditional ages old Anthropological traditions, decades ago when by arguing, respectfully, a newer and seldom even mentioned set of ideas. However, I did it, my regular readers have easily admitted that my predictions evidenced on the record, dated and timed, here and on my BLOGSPOTS, that seemed so unpopular with the talking heads on Fox and MSNBC, as to come out of the deep mist in far right field, are and have been infallibly correct, acing them at every turn. If you doubt it, go to my BLOGSPOTS (2 of them) or go to archives here and see for yourself, the incredibly out-of-the-blue, but correct predictions-predictions no one else dared make. Sounds like a brag, but if it is true, it can't be brag, besides I was not the author of the predictions-they did come "out of the blue." Have a nice day Good Night and God bless
Professor Bagnolo is a Renaissance man: Cultural Anthropologist, Architectural designer, painter, writer, novelist, theologian. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, with an off the charts IQ, reading at the graduate level by 5th grade, offered an opportunity to skip three grades at age 8. Later He was a recipient of an Art Institute scholarship at age 11, a Ford Foundation Fellowship in Anthropology and in Painting and a merit scholarship in art, and was appointed a Graduate Research Assistant position in college. He holds a triple bachelor's degree in Painting and Drawing, Anthropology, Architectural Design Advertising. MA's in Cultural Anthro, Painting and more. After being tenured he taught; architecture, anthropology, Theology, advertising, painting and drawing, entrepreneuring and Creative Profit Making. He produced a star-studded Music festival, had a radio talk show in Chicago, and cable TV show. Now, retired from Teaching, he paints, writes, and pursues other ventures.
The above bio harvested from the comments of Deans, colleagues, students, clients and collector's.
Great article. You point out the fantastic aspect of science which is that it is a process of growth and self-correction. Scientists try to make “approximations” of the world that help tie larger amounts of data into a coherent picture. Many specific scenarios posited for evolution can have trouble as more data comes out, but many larger aspects of evolution theory, ranging from “convergence” to “missing links” as indicative of gradual change in form, are finding great support in new findings.
The idea that humans evolved from ancestral primates in a single, stepwise fashion, one species to another, is simplistic. Many distinct hominids and other primates have lived and adapted over long periods of time to shifting environments, and we and the existing primates are the ones that have persisted to date. The others have gone extinct.
We will never know exactly what happened, too much evidence has been lost. We will eventually be able to put together a pretty good approximation of evolutionary history over the last 500 million years though, which is certain to have some errors, but will be close enough for our purposes.
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John R Moffett (80 articles, 14 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 601 comments)
on Friday, August 17, 2007 at 6:44:35 PM
Yes, John, I have no doubt they will find the links or an approximation of them. For all of his brilliance in this simple sketch of how life works on planet earth, like many of us his family life, a step from a Stephen King novel darkened his view and kept him from seeing a few things clearly. They will see blanks filled in and while I have no clue what the final scenario will be, I have a feeling that each step is/was a sketchpad. I think that there is an kind of inter-connective ness, a transmigration, in which, like the sexual dance, chemistry (for want of searching for the right term) the genes communicate in some manner from one being to another and a massive mutation of forms, in some spiritual, or invisible way takes place in which one subspecies is replaced, in a massive Gestalt, not some slow movement, one gene at a time, though I think there is some of that, but one kind of replacement, running side-by-side with that which it will replace. It happened with Neanderthal and Homo sapiens too.
Did you ever read, THE FLOWER CHILDREN OF SHANIDAR? I READ IT IN undergraduate school, lost it, and cannot find a copy. Great story of the find in Kurdistan of a cave occupied for 51,000 years continuously by Kurds from Neanderthal to the present day and the burial of one guy which story discovers the humanity of the tribe 51,000 years ago who did successful amputation surgery on him, including tying off the artery, and because he could no longer hunt had him help the women in the cave, and when he was killed by falling Stalactites, they had a massive funereal feast burial for him with a plethora of symbols of their belief 51,000 years ago of an afterlife. I wrote an analysis of the symbolism that were published and was used by my Profs for years and they commissioned me to flesh-on in paintings a series of skulls of Neanderthal, and several other steps to the doorstep of Homo sapiens. My explanation here is sketchy of the transitions because I haven't quite figured it out yet. Like Einstein's struggle with the simple elegant unifying principle, there is in evolution a vast but simple, overlooked reality staring us right in the face that is being missed because of a kind of professional loyalty, almost religiosity of the scientists to their loyalty to old stuff. It is there the simple answer and it may be as easy as electronic signals from one male to one female, that gives way to a whole new species, I see that clearly, HOMO Modernis.
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Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 1313 comments)
on Friday, August 17, 2007 at 7:40:08 PM
