The discovery centers around teeth: that of a member of the genus Homo, of which we are a part, found next to the tooth of Australopithecus, the last in a line of apes that became humans. The team of paleontologists who found the teeth are following protocol and not inferring anything about how the two species interacted, but the fact is that the Homo tooth was the older of the two, showing that human evolution wasn’t linear.
For anyone who actually works with evolutionary systems and models: yup, that’s how it would work. I’m glad they found evidence that the models aren’t overturned, though likely tuned by the new info.
These are phenomenal finds. Great work, slow diggers!
Maybe I’m not quite getting it, but with mutations and natural selection happening on a never-ending basis, isn’t this exactly what’s to be expected with just about every life form on the planet?
One set doesn’t necessarily swiftly disappear (or at all) with the arrival of a new species, right? Especially the more widespread is their habitat, I should think.
Or is this case more about helping to shore up the record for Homo, specifically?
You’re getting it just fine. This is exactly what’s expected in many cases as speciation occurs. Usually the two branches diverge, but still overlap in the timeline. Over time they either both survive and continue to diverge, or one (or both) dies out.
Yeah, it’s well understood that homo didn’t just magically start existing and that caused all of its ancestors to suddenly disappear, but the headline makes it seem like that part was in doubt. (FWIW, I originally read the “staggering” part to be the find itself – like, what are the odds that you find a cache of various ancient hominid teeth together?)
it’s well understood that homo didn’t just magically start existing and that caused all of its ancestors to suddenly disappear…
Stuff and nonsense!!
It’s well understood that their lordships the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Bob Dobbs one day decided to monkey with some hominids, producing H.s.s. in a lovely explosion of green gamma rays.As a natural followup, they erased all other living examples of genus Homo, and just for larfs-- added DNA evidence of crossbreeding with ~half a dozen of those others.
As a special bonus prank, they created one more of these apes, but made this one both immortal and mostly invisible. They taught him some simple parlor tricks, then they conditioned the poor fool in to thinking that he’d created everything in existence, including the previous ones.
Anyway, that’s what I heard, man.
That headline is really… rough. It underscores the very reason why evolution-deniers misunderstand the concept of evolving from another species. I’ve said it so many times: Science journalists are almost always terrible at their job.
Yeah, agreed. I originally read the “staggering” part to be the find itself, not the confirmation of the already well-regarded theory of contemporary existence, but I definitely see what you mean here.
The older I get the more sure I am that we’re still living amongst some of our less evolved ancestors.
Not less evolved, just less adapted to current conditions. We’ll soon join them.
