Absolute Truth Network

Introduction

Two fossils found in Kenya have shaken the human family tree, possiblyrearranging major branches thought to be in a straight ancestral line toHomo sapiens.
National Museums of Kenya/F. SpoorScientists who dated and analyzed the specimens — a 1.44 million-year-oldHomo habilis and a 1.55 million-year-old Homo erectus — said their findingschallenged the conventional view that these species evolved one after theother. Instead, they apparently lived side by side in eastern Africa foralmost half a million years.
If this interpretation is correct, the early evolution of the genus Homo isleft even more shrouded in mystery than before. It means that both habilisand erectus must have originated from a common ancestor between two millionand three million years ago, a time when fossil hunters had drawn a virtualblank.
Although the findings do not change the relationship of Homo erectus as adirect ancestor of Homo sapiens, scientists said, the surprisinglydiminutive erectus skull implies that this species was not as humanlike asonce thought.
Other paleontologists and experts in human evolution said the discoverystrongly suggested that the early transition from more apelike to morehumanlike ancestors was still poorly understood. They also said that thisemphasized the need to search more widely for fossils from the criticalperiod at the still unknown dawn of our own genus, Homo.
The challenge to the idea of a more linear succession of the three Homospecies is being reported today in the journal Nature. The lead author isFred Spoor, an evolutionary anatomist at University College London. Otherauthors include Meave G. Leakey and her daughter Louise Leakey, the Kenyanpaleontologists who are co-directors of the Koobi Fora Research Project thatmade the discovery. The fieldwork was supported by the National GeographicSociety.
The fossils were found east of Lake Turkana in Kenya in 2000. It took yearsto prepare the specimens, encased in hardened sediment, for study and to besure of the identification of the species, the scientists said. Universityof Utah geologists determined the dates of the fossils from volcanic ashdeposits.
The most recent fossils of the habilis species known before now were 1.65million years old or older. Some fragments of fossils with apparent habilisattributes have been dated as early as 2.33 million years old.
In recent years, scientists not involved in the project said, discoverieswere hinting at possible overlap between the habilis and erectus species.But the implications were considered so profound that little was said aboutthese dates, pending more conclusive evidence.
“The oldest Homo habilis we had known of was about the same age as erectus,”said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of biological anthropology at HarvardUniversity. “Now we have extended the duration of the habilis species, andthere’s no doubt that it overlaps considerably with erectus.”
In their report, Dr. Spoor and his colleagues wrote, “With the discovery ofthe new, well dated specimens, H. habilis and H. erectus can now be shown tohave co-occurred in eastern Africa for nearly half a million years.”
The fact that the two hominid species lived together in the same lake basinfor so long and remained separate species, Dr. Meave Leakey said in astatement from Nairobi, “suggests that they had their own ecological niche,thus avoiding direct competition.” For example, the two may have hadforaging and dietary differences.
In any case, Dr. Leakey said, “Their co-existence makes it unlikely thatHomo erectus evolved from Homo habilis.”
Dr. Spoor, speaking by satellite phone from a field site near Lake Turkana,said the evidence clearly contradicted previous ideas of human evolution “asone strong, single line from early to us.” The new findings, he added,support the revised interpretations of “a lot of bushiness andexperimentation in the fossil record,” rather than a more linear successionof species.
But Dr. Spoor said the second fossil, the 1.55 million-year-old erectusskull, was probably the more surprising discovery. The bones are unusuallywell preserved.
“What is truly striking about this fossil is its size,” he said. “It is thesmallest Homo erectus found thus far anywhere in the world.”
The scientists reported that the individual was a young adult or “a latesubadult.” Its size was closer to that of a habilis than previously knownerectus fossils. But the distinctive ridge on the cranium, the jaw and teethand the shape of the neck are all characteristic of erectus rather thanhabilis or other human ancestors.
From the skull’s small size, the scientists concluded that Homo erectus was,in one important respect, less humanlike than had been previously assumed.Other erectus skull and skeletal fossils had seemed to show erectus to bethe first human ancestor that was like us in so many ways, except for asmaller brain.
Susan Anton, an anthropologist at New York University and one of thereport’s authors, said that the small skull pointed up a significantvariation in the sizes of erectus specimens, particularly differencesbetween the male and female of the species, or sexual dimorphism.
Such a characteristic is thought to be a primitive stage in evolution. Inhumans, males average about 15 percent larger than females, and the same istrue for chimpanzees. Sexual dimorphism is much more striking in gorillas,and apparently also in erectus.
“The new Kenyan fossil suggests that contrary to common belief, this mayhave been true of Homo erectus,” Dr. Anton said, implying that erectus wasnot as humanlike as once thought.
Dr. Lieberman of Harvard said, “The small skull has got to be a female, andmy guess is that all the previous erectus we have found turned out to bemale.”
The new findings, Dr. Lieberman said, highlight the need for obtaining morefossils that are more than two million years old. In addition, he said, theyshow “just how interesting and complex the human genus was and how poorly weunderstand the transition from being something much more apelike tosomething more humanlike.”
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Published in NYTIMES August 9, 2007

Vedic Observer

Over the past two centuries researchers have found bones and artifacts showing that people like ourselves existed on earth millions of years ago. But the scientific establishment has ignored these remarkable facts because they contradict the dominant views of human origins and antiquity. Micheal Cremo and Richard Thompson challenge us to rethink our understanding of human origins, identity, and destiny in their new book Forbidden Archeology. Forbidden Archeology takes on one of the most fundamental components of the modern scientific world view, and invites us to take a courageous first step towards a new perspective.

Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race presents a representative sample of this anomalous evidence suggesting that humans have been on the earth for millions of years, ,just as the ancient Sanskrit writings of the Vedic literatures describe. The Vedic histories inform us that humans have existed since the beginning of the day of Brahma, about 2 billion years ago.

Cremo and Thompson conclude that even the conventionally accepted evidence does not offer a cohesive picture of the missing link; instead, the multiplicity of proposed evolutionary linkages among the hominids in Africa creates a very confusing scheme of human evolution. They call for a drastic revision of the now-dominant assumptions about human origins.

References

#Forbidden Archeology