3 Responses

  1. Red Pill Junkie
    Red Pill Junkie November 1, 2013 at 8:10 pm |

    I feel this might be relevant to the discussion:

    Dmanisi Human: Skull from Georgia Implies All Early Homo Species were One

    “The archaeological site of Dmanisi, located in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia about 93 km southwest of the capital Tbilisi, has only been partially excavated so far, but it’s already providing the first opportunity for anthropologists to compare and contrast the physical traits of multiple human ancestors that apparently coincided in the same time and geological space.

    “The differences between these Dmanisi fossils are no more pronounced than those between five modern humans or five chimpanzees,” said Dr David Lordkipanidze from the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, a lead author of a paper in the journal Science and co-author of a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Traditionally, researchers have used variation among Homo fossils to define different species. But in light of these new findings, Dr Lordkipanidze and his colleagues suggest that early, diverse Homo fossils, with their origins in Africa, actually represent variation among members of a single, evolving lineage – most appropriately, Homo erectus.

    “Had the braincase and the face of Skull 5 been found as separate fossils at different sites in Africa, they might have been attributed to different species,” said Dr Christoph Zollikofer from the Anthropological Institute and Museum in Zurich, Switzerland, a co-author of the Science paper.”

    From what I gather of the Dmanisi study –please correct me if I’m wrong– is that cranial dimorphism is no longer a valid factor to determine whether a specimen belongs to a different species or not. So if those Georgian fossils all belonged to the same Homo Erectus family, perhaps it wouldn’t be surprising to find the same kind of diversity in Homo Sapiens.

  2. alanborky
    alanborky November 2, 2013 at 8:25 pm |

    This’s off topic Loren but it’s kind of cryptozooey definitely Fortean an’ y’just might’ve missed it.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-24785508

    Alderney’s ‘ghost pig’ may be wild boar from France [thought to have swum there from the nearby French coast].

    Farm owner Tess Woodnutt said she would not have believed the animal could jump so high from a standing start, if she had not seen it with her own eyes.

    Islanders have dubbed the boar “ghost pig”, as it has only been seen at dusk.

  3. Surveyor
    Surveyor November 27, 2013 at 12:00 am |

    I did a Google search on the photo labelled “Alleged reconstruction of Zana”, and the only sites that came up with that picture on them at all were sites discussing the mc1r gene in neanderthals, for which that recreation was actually created. I like the redone pic of her above that. It makes it all come together visually.

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