Secret History
Kent State University Professor C. Owen Lovejoy, who specializes in the study of human origins, said his findings came from a study of Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what now is Ethiopia.
"People often think we evolved from apes, but no, apes in many ways evolved from us," Lovejoy said. "It has been a popular idea to think humans are modified chimpanzees. From studying Ardipithecus ramidus, or Ardi (a partial female skeleton) we learn that we cannot understand or model human evolution from chimps and gorillas."
Ardi is "not a chimp," paleoanthropologist Tim White of the University of California-Berkeley, told the San Jose Mercury News. "It shows us what we used to be. It bridges a gap."
Until Ardi was discovered, the earliest specimen of human evolutions was Australopithecus, a bipedal "ape man" that lived 1-4 million years ago, the newspaper said, noting the most famous member of the genus was the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton nicknamed "Lucy" that was found in 1974.
Ardi, White said, is older and more primitive than Lucy, belonging to a new type of early hominid that was neither chimpanzee nor fully human.
Lovejoy, White and other scientists present their research in a special Oct. 2 issue of the journal Science.
Reader Comments
Although I share Laura's disdain for creationism, I appreciate that, from time to time, creationists level legitimate challenges to the conclusions that evolutionists draw from fossils.
So-called "Nebraska Man" comes to mind.
I consider it beneficial that dogmatic creationists and dogmatic evolutionists "tweak" one another.
There is no "Missing Link".............
Mainstream academia at it again.
Read lloyd Pye' book "Everything You Know Is Wrong"...........
Good re-post: most Creationists seem to think science does state we "evolved" from apes/chimps. Only the poorly informed believe that...and Fundies. We spring from hominids. They spread the entire face of the unfrozen Earth a million+ years ago...I am sure of it.
And it is exactly that strawman point they must cling to, a misdirection of the argument back to "monkey trial" days....because to acknowledge the truth would be to cause great internal conflict: our ancestors, now identified as at least five (5) types of "modern humans" now roaming the face of the Earth (Max Plankt Institute DNA research) proves all those fossils of hominids a million+ years old...."was us". Including Neandertals.
And as different in appearance as we are (evolved from local physical climate conditions over eons)...we all can reproduce with any other hominid today. We are Earth's offspring, we've "been around" an awful long time.
Those fantastic stone carvings of animals at the astrological temple at Gobekli Tepe...dated 9,000 B.C.....do Fundies think the artists just "got lucky" that day and found some stone carving metal tools to use...and immediately knew how to carve intricate relief in stone?
Try it sometime, "modern humans"...get back to me on result.
We are hardly created from any "god" six thousand years ago.....at least not one in a 7 Day Adventist hurry.
NugaBurd: "Although I share Laura's disdain for creationism, I appreciate that, from time to time, creationists level legitimate challenges to the conclusions that evolutionists draw from fossils."
"Legitimate" based on what, their Faith that Creationism has validity? Or on the rare occasion they embrace real science and then challenge?
Because if they are basing the challenge on some imaginary "Creator", it has absolutely no validity. All that is myth based upon neolithic observations of the heavens...and then making up soap operas to entertain over campfire nights.
And off topic:
"Utter Nonsense
By: DownunderET
There is no "Missing Link"............."
Not that it was the topic of this article...but...maybe there is. Ever heard of "Projection"?
Yeah, go ahead, and have a real good think about who we are and where we came from.
Definately not from apes and definately not by some god clicking his fingers.
How many tribes are left on Earth : 3 : White, Black, Asian . That suggests 3 different alien races dominated the planet. The basic difference man has from animals is standing on 2 feet instead of 4. Upright position led to more brain surfface and therefore more intelligence : But this didn't happen ACCIDENTALY. DNA examination showed that we have one chromosome less than animals on 4 feet which means subtraction, therefore alien intervention. That was the beginning of the end.