Interesting News Story. (I love everything Nat Geo...)

[vetusvates]

I majored in zoology because I thought maybe one day I might be able to work for National Geographic.

But, alas, my dreams must be content with NatGeo news. They have a beautiful site.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/photogalleries/100408-australopithecus-sediba-human-species-fossil-pictures/#australopithecus-sediba-skull-oblique-view_18458_600x450.jpg

 

[Michael823]

Crazy stuff! I too LOVE Nat Geo!!!

 

[requin]

That is so cool! I also really love NatGeo.

 

[medusacoils]

That is cool! One thing I can't understand, is if we are all descendants of apes, then why didn't all of them evolve. Maybe I'm not that smart, but I can't figure how only a specific type of ape developed in us, but all the rest were left behind. It's just really weird.

Wayne :sidestep:

 

[Michael823]

That is cool! One thing I can't understand, is if we are all descendants of apes, then why didn't all of them evolve. Maybe I'm not that smart, but I can't figure how only a specific type of ape developed in us, but all the rest were left behind. It's just really weird.

Wayne :sidestep:

I hear where you're coming from. That's why I take these discoveries at face value. It's neat to learn about different species that existed millions of years ago, but there's still so many ?'s! It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but each discovery is a piece to the puzzle, in one way or another. It's just hard to tell what the puzzle makes up to be from just a few pieces.

 

[medusacoils]

I hear where you're coming from. That's why I take these discoveries at face value. It's neat to learn about different species that existed millions of years ago, but there's still so many ?'s! It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but each discovery is a piece to the puzzle, in one way or another. It's just hard to tell what the puzzle makes up to be from just a few pieces.

AND THEN, this is where the agnostic in me comes out, who or what decided that these specific pieces of the puzzles evolved. Was it nature or was it something else?

Wayne

 

[ceduke]

Fascinating!! I almost majored in physical anthropology, I love discoveries like this!

 

[Shiari]

That is cool! One thing I can't understand, is if we are all descendants of apes, then why didn't all of them evolve. Maybe I'm not that smart, but I can't figure how only a specific type of ape developed in us, but all the rest were left behind. It's just really weird.

Wayne :sidestep:

It's because of different evolutionary pressures. Do mind that we ARE apes. Human apes. And all apes did evolve. Everything is constantly evolving. We, ourselves, are transitional forms. Everything is a transitional form. Asking why all apes didn't turn into human is on par with asking why didn't every feline become tigers... or why all snakes didn't become corn snakes.

There were good food sources in the trees and underbrush in some areas, and the other apes evolved to exploit those food sources. Our species line "branched" out and found an even cleverer way to exploit those sources... carrying them. Only, when you carry something you only have two limbs to locomote with. Hence the change in hip, knee, and ankle structure over vast periods of time. Slight variations that made it more comfortable, more efficient. These individuals fared better and passed on those genes. Small changes accumulating over time through environmental and biological pressures. And small changes eventually lead up to big changes.

This video used a few fossil skulls of human ancestors and a morphing program. It is not a factual representation of how the subtle changes occurred as we do not have every single skull from every single individual to have ever lived. However, it is a very good representation of how it might have looked. The equivalent of 500 generations passes with each second. And each second doesn't look all that different from the second before it, or the second after... but when added together? Macro evolution. Speciation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcqA8wEljPM

 

[Iguanagirl8662]

I love NatGeo and I get all my extra credit articles for my Bio Antropology class from there.

 

[Michael823]

AND THEN, this is where the agnostic in me comes out, who or what decided that these specific pieces of the puzzles evolved. Was it nature or was it something else?

Wayne

Yes, it does beg the 'bigger' question. I am by no means religious, but I do feel that we are here for a greater purpose. Not just people, but all life. I think about life itself, then my own, and for all of my questions that I have, I've never been able to answer them going completely by what science says. Not to open up a philosophical or religious discussion, because I love me some Nat Geo, but the meaning of life, in my opinion, will never be fully answered. And it definitely won't be definitely by skeletal remains, although I do find the discoveries fascinating.

 

[Shiari]

Maybe I'm odd then for finding joy in the idea of no inherent purpose to life beyond reproducing itself. Because it is a far greater sense of freedom. No thing has decided what I'm "here for"... I get to decide for myself! My own decision, my own purpose. I am no thing's pawn.

 

[desertanimal]

That is cool! One thing I can't understand, is if we are all descendants of apes, then why didn't all of them evolve. Maybe I'm not that smart, but I can't figure how only a specific type of ape developed in us, but all the rest were left behind. It's just really weird.

Wayne :sidestep:

Like Shiara said, they did. And so did everything else in the world. (Well, a few things really didn't. The ceolocanth and cycad plants have apparently been under stabilizing selection for a long time and haven't changed hardly at all.) Many apes were "left behind" in the Miocene. Most of them went extinct. Some of them gave rise to orangutans. Some of them eventually evolved into the animals that gave rise to chimps, gorillas, and humans. Chimps have certainly also changed since our last common ancestor with them, but they weren't living in environments that are very good for preservation (and therefore produce many fossils), and people sure as heck aren't looking as hard for those fossils as they are looking for the ones that are related to the lineage eventually leading to Homo since its divergence from the last common ancestor with chimps. There has been some recent genetic work published, though, that suggests that chimps have undergone a lot more change since the last common ancestor than anyone had previously thought.