Re:Oldest Fossils of Homo Sapiens Found in Morocco
by tarsinge on Thursday June 08, 2017 @05:16AM
(#14512927)
> This particular skull is apparently slightly elongated compared to than of modern humans, so that is spawning some debate, which is good. I don't know if some would consider this a parent species because of this, but probably.
Naive question, how do we draw the line between new species and variance of actual homo sapiens? I can imagine some interesting "specimens" of underlying skulls in some people I've encountered that could even fall in another extinct homo species from the images I've seen (sounds funny but it's real question).
Re:Oldest Fossils of Homo Sapiens Found in Morocco
by Clubber on Thursday June 08, 2017 @10:02AM
(#14514224)
I would guess that's up to each researcher. When I was familiarizing myself about some of this on Wikipedia, I noticed that by the time homo erectus came around our predecessors already knew how to control fire and make clothing.
1. We find human remains we can date back 100,000 years. Press release that we know humans are at least 100,000 years old.
2. We find human remains we can date back 150,000 years. Press release that we know humans are at least 150,000 years old. We were wrong about #1 (sort of).
3. We find human remains we can date back 200,000 years. Press release that we know humans are at least 200,000 years old. We were wrong about #1 & #2 (sort of).
This particular skull is apparently slightly elongated compared to than of modern humans, so that is spawning some debate, which is good. I don't know if some would consider this a parent species because of this, but probably.
An interesting paragraph I read in one of these articles on this recent discovery is that fossils this old are difficult to find because it requires an dry, arid area to survive. Assuming that humanity started in Africa will probably never be disproven because we would need to find a fossil older than 300,000 years that's not in Africa. I assume we think this based on the only evidence we have: we've only found the oldest fossils in Africa.