no silly, it was the devil that planted it. God is benevolent.....well, unless you're not jewish, then he'll kick your ass in a heartbeat.
On 11/19/07, G Money <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Pfffft.......God planted that jawbone to test your faith.* > > *NOTE: Actual claim of Intelligent Designers. > > On Nov 19, 2007 2:05 AM, Dana <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071113-ape-fossil.html > > > > New Ape May Be Human-Gorilla Ancestor > > Dave Hansford > > for National Geographic News > > > > November 13, 2007 > > A ten-million-year-old jawbone recently unearthed in Kenya may have > > come from the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees, and > > humans, researchers say. > > > > The find also helps refute a theory that the apes that eventually gave > > rise to humans left Africa for Asia and Europe, only to return much > > later, as many experts have hypothesized. > > > > The jaw was found at Nakali, Kenya, on the eastern edge of the Great > > Rift Valley, along with incisor, canine, and molar teeth. > > > > The teeth are so different from previous finds that researchers placed > > the creature, named Nakalipithecus nakayamai, in a new hominid genus. > > > > Hominids are part of a broad family of primates that includes Africa's > > chimpanzees and gorillas and Southeast Asia's orangutans. The group > > also includes our own genus, Homo, and the extinct Australopithecus. > > > > Scientists estimate that orangutans split off from the lineage that > > ultimately led to humans about 12 million years ago. Gorillas and > > chimps are believed to have parted ways from our ancestors about eight > > and four million years ago, respectively. > > > > "We think that the new ape ... is very close to the common ancestor of > > gorillas and chimpanzees and humans," said Yutaka Kunimatsu, an > > assistant professor at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto > > University and co-leader of the joint Kenyan-Japanese team that found > > the fossil. > > > > The findings appear in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of > > the National Academy of Sciences. > > > > Diet Clues > > > > The newfound teeth are about the size of a modern female gorilla's and > > show indications of a mostly vegetarian diet. > > > > "The animal had thick enamel on its cheek teeth ... so we think that > > the new ape ate a considerable amount of hard food, probably nuts and > > seeds," Kunimatsu said. "It probably also ate other food, like most > > primates." > > > > When Nakalipithecus was alive, Kunimatsu said, a few grassland > > clearings would have dotted a mostly forested region. > > > > "Between seven and ten million years ago, the environment in Africa > > changed," he said. "It became more open and barren." > > > > Material from the dig probably came from both males and females, he added. > > > > "We discovered most of the specimens within a very small area, > > probably about 10 to 20 square meters [110 to 220 square feet], so > > maybe they came from a group." > > > > The team also found the remains of many other primates at the Nakali > > site, Kunimatsu said, showing that a richer diversity of monkeys and > > apes than was previously thought survived late into the Miocene epoch, > > which lasted from about 23 to 5 million years ago. > > > > The Great Migration? > > > > The new finds are a rare glimpse into Africa's recent fossil record, > > where a gap between around 12 million years ago and the present has > > clouded human ancestral origins. > > > > "We have almost nothing with which to understand the divergence of the > > African great apes and humans," Kunimatsu said. > > > > That gap has prompted some researchers to suggest that hominid apes > > left Africa for Europe and Asia about 20 million years ago, returning > > much later. > > > > This "into Africa" theory was bolstered by discoveries of an eight- > > to-nine million-year-old hominid, Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, in > > Greece and Turkey. > > > > But the Nakali jawbone complements other recent African hominid > > discoveries in casting doubt on that theory, said Tim White, director > > of the Human Evolution Research Center at the University of > > California, Berkeley. > > > > For example, a Miocene ape dubbed Chororapithecus abyssinicus was > > found last year in Ethiopia. > > > > Though its relationship to Nakalipithecus has not yet been > > established, the "into Africa" proponents "have some explaining to do, > > now that the African record is starting to fill up," White said. > > > > Study co-leader Kunimatsu said the discovery hinted that the migration > > may even have occurred in the opposite direction. > > > > "It is highly probable that large-bodied hominids survived through the > > middle to late Miocene in Africa, giving rise to the last common > > ancestor of African great apes and humans," he said. > > > > Missing Link > > > > Now the search is on for additional fossils that might solve the > > puzzle definitively. > > > > "The great news is we now have places and time periods to look in. We > > have [African] sediments with vertebrate fossils, and they're not easy > > to findthey are very rare in that time period," U.C. Berkeley's White > > said. > > > > "The real hope, of course, is that they will find ... pieces of the > > rest of the bodyleg bones, arm bones, that sort of thing." > > > > The greatest prize, Kunimatsu said, would be to find the link between > > chimps and humans. > > > > "That's the most interesting link. We would like to know, finally, how > > humans and chimpanzees diverged from each other." > > > > "Evolution is an unbroken chain of links, and the more of those links > > we can recover, the more we're going to understand the chain," White > > added. "We still have pretty major gapsnot because the chain was > > broken, but because we haven't found the links yet. > > > > "We are going to get closer and closer to that last common ancestor," > > he said. "And we are already pretty darn close. We're down there > > knocking on that door, five or six million years ago." > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free > > our minds > > - Bob Marley > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Download the latest ColdFusion 8 utilities including Report Builder, plug-ins for Eclipse and Dreamweaver updates. http;//www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs%5adobecf8%5Fbeta Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:246739 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
