New Study Suggests That Man May Not Originate From Africa After All

Discussion in 'Science' started by Taxonomy26, Oct 3, 2017.

  1. Taxonomy26

    Taxonomy26 Banned

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    This is a Shocker!
    One thing we thought we knew.
    Yet this is not a done deal, and many Scientists remain dubious.
    IAC, we're finding some old and interesting material.

    Interesting and perhaps related too. I started another thread a few months ago stating that the oldest known of our species was pushed back to 300,000 years ago in NORTH Africa/Morocco. Closer to S Europe.
    http://www.politicalforum.com/index...-known-specimens-of-the-human-species.506866/

    This thread about the earlier ape/hominid split

    New Study Suggests That Man May Not Originate From Africa After All
    By Jessica Stewart on October 3, 2017
    http://mymodernmet.com/new-evolutionary-theories-man-from-europe/

    While it's commonly thought that hominins—a species that eventually led to modern humans—originate from Africa, a new study is casting doubt on the theory. A group of researchers recently published two studies that give evidence that early man may have originated from Europe, bucking the theory of African origins that dates back to Charles Darwin.

    The international research team published two papers in PLOS One pointing to the Balkans, specifically Greece, as a possible starting point for humanity. The evidence? Two fossil specimens, one of a lower jaw from Greece and an upper molar from Bulgaria, which were determined by researchers to be from pre-humans. Specifically, the scientists maintain that they belong to Graecopithecus freybergi. This species is “several hundred thousand years older than the oldest potential pre-human from Africa, the six to seven-million-year-old Sahelanthropus from Chad.”

    Apes and humans are thought to share a common lineage until five to seven million years ago, but these findings could indicate that the split occurred hundreds of thousands of years earlier, in Europe.

    “Our discovery outlines a new scenario for the beginning of human history—the findings allow us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area,” states Dr. David Begun, a paleontologist from the University of Toronto who co-authored one of the articles. “These research findings call into question one of the most dogmatic assertions in paleoanthropology since Charles Darwin, which is that the human lineage originated in Africa.”

    “It is not a matter of continental bragging rights. It is critical to know where the human lineage arose so that we can reconstruct the circumstances leading to our divergence from the common ancestor we share with chimpanzees. Not having this information is like having a crime without the crime scene.”

    But don't go changing the textbooks just yet. Since the studies were released in May 2017, some of the scientific community has remained skeptical about their impact, citing the high number of pre-human fossils found in Africa versus the two specimens in the studies.

    ... more ...​

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    Last edited: Oct 3, 2017
  2. Taxonomy26

    Taxonomy26 Banned

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    The original study mentioned above

    Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe
    • Jochen Fuss,
    • Nikolai Spassov,
    • David R. Begun,
    • Madelaine Böhme
    • Published: May 22, 2017
    http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177127
    [......]
    Introduction
    Within the intensively studied field of early hominin evolution, a crucial question is the split of our own clade from the Panini. Over the last decades the fossil record of potential early hominins increased with taxa suchas Ardipithecus, Orrorin and Sahelanthropus 13]. Recent molecular data propose a divergence time of Pan and Homo between 5 and 10 Ma [4] and Langergraber et al. [5] propose an age of at least 7–8 Ma. These estimations largely coincide with the evidence obtained from the fossil record across Africa and Eurasia [6, 7].

    In the present study, we define ‘hominoid’ as ‘apes’; ‘hominid’ as ‘great apes and humans’; ‘hominine’ as ‘African apes and humans’; and ‘hominin’ as ‘humans and their non-ape ancestors’. Currently, the fossil record reveals three Miocene candidates with potential hominin affinity.
    [......]
    Phylogenetic position of Graecopithecus
    [......]
    Therefore, we submit that the dental root attributes of Graecopithecus suggest hominin affinities, such that its hominin status cannot be excluded. If this status is confirmed by additional fossil evidence, Graecopithecus would be the oldest known hominin and the oldest known crown hominine, as the evidence for the gorillin status of Chororapithecus is much weaker than the hominin status of Graecopithecus [8].

    More fossils are needed but at this point it seems likely that the Eastern Mediterranean needs to be considered as just as likely a place of hominine diversification and hominin origins as tropical Africa."..."
    [......]​

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    Last edited: Oct 6, 2017
    William Rea likes this.
  3. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Personally I find it likely based on recent discoveries that humanity originated in multiple areas over hundreds of thousands of years. Genetic and fossil evidence indicates this is the case and Earth geology makes the "Out of Africa" hypothesis all but impossible.
     
  4. ThirdTerm

    ThirdTerm Well-Known Member

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    I think taxonomy is discredited science which is no longer relevant and generally abandoned. We cannot trace human evolution accurately by comparing the shapes of teeth and mandibles without getting into genetics. The team proposed that Graecopithecus freybergi is the oldest hominin ever discovered but it could actually be a hominid which managed to reach southern Greece from Africa.

    [​IMG]

     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2017
  5. Taxonomy26

    Taxonomy26 Banned

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    Really? Do tell.
    Is there a new (Leftist/PC) 'Hip-Hop' classification system that suits your politics better?
    Creationists use "Kinds".

    J Hum Evol. 2016 Apr;93:63-81. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.01.010. Epub 2016 Mar 3.
    A dental perspective on the taxonomic affinity of the Balanica mandible (BH-1).
    Skinner MM1, de Vries D2, Gunz P3, Kupczik K4, Klassen RP5, Hublin JJ3, Roksandic M5.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27086056

    Abstract
    The Middle Pleistocene represents a period of critical importance in human evolution, marked by encephalisation and dental reduction, and increasing diversification of temporally and spatially distributed hominin lineages in Africa, Asia and Europe. New specimens, especially from areas less well represented in the fossil record, can inform the debate on morphological changes to the skeleton and teeth and the phylogenetic course of human evolution during this period.

    The mandible from the cave of Mala Balanica, Serbia has recently been re-dated to at least 400 ka, and its well-preserved dentition presents an excellent opportunity to characterize molar crown morphology at this time period, and re-examine claims for a lack of Neandertal affinities in the specimen.

    In this study we employ microtomography to image the internal structure of the mandibular molars (focusing on the morphology of the enamel-dentine junction, or EDJ) of the BH-1 specimen and a comparative sample (n = 141) of Homo erectus sensu lato, Homo neanderthalensis, Pleistocene Homo sapiens, and recent H. sapiens. We quantitatively assess EDJ morphology using 3D geometric morphometrics and examine the expression of discrete dental traits at the dentine surface. We also compare third molar enamel thickness in BH-1 to those of H. neanderthalensis and both Pleistocene and recent H. sapiens, and document previously unreported morphology of the BH-1 premolar and molar roots. Our results highlight the reliability of the EDJ surface for classifying hominin taxa, indicate a primitive dental morphology for BH-1 molars, and confirm a general lack of derived Neandertal features for the Balanica individual. The plesiomorphic character of BH-1 is consistent with several competing models of Middle Pleistocene hominin evolution and provides an important regional and temporal example for reconstructing morphological changes in the mandible and teeth during this time period.​

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    Last edited: Oct 7, 2017
  6. Windigo

    Windigo Banned

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    Ive been saying this for a long time.
     

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