Human history - especially our earliest history - is so fascinating. Thank you for this thread!
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Human Movement The early Homo Sapiens
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Crazy how many pieces of the puzzle have been slotted in just in a couple of years.
'Oldest remains' outside Africa reset human migration clock
A 210,000-year-old skull has been identified as the earliest modern human remains found outside Africa, putting the clock back on mankind's arrival in Europe by more than 150,000 years, researchers said Wednesday.phys.org
A 210,000-year-old skull has been identified as the earliest modern human remains found outside Africa, putting the clock back on mankind's arrival in Europe by more than 150,000 years, researchers said Wednesday.
In a startling discovery that changes our understanding of how modern man populated Eurasia, the findings support the idea that Homo sapiens made several, sometimes unsuccessful migrations from Africa over tens of thousands of years.
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New Species of Early Human Is Even Smaller Than the 'Hobbit'
www.livescience.com
There is more than one Hominin exodus from Africa. Also need to distinguish between the archaic and early-modern Homo sapiens leaving Africa. A bit like your Ruckman/Fullback Neanderthal and your Rover/forward pocket genius. Personally I think Homo erectus is the most important Hominin member. Even though Homo erectus is as old as 1.8 million years, the large skull and adaptation of walking upright was a game changer. A line was drawn at the center circle for the center bounces.
Modern day humans are quite rare in the way they are categorised being the only species remaining and having no sub species. With the inclusion of the above recent discovery of a dwarf hominin member, the total number that have existed is 9 (or is it 10?). All are extinct apart from Modern Homo sapiens.
Race is a human socio-political construct based on things like demographics and neuroses and has no basis in Genetics or taxonomy.
So what are all the wars about?
New Species of Early Human Is Even Smaller Than the 'Hobbit'
It's unclear how this newfound ancient human relative made it to an island in the Philippines at least 67,000 years ago.
There is more than one Hominin exodus from Africa. Also need to distinguish between the archaic and early-modern Homo sapiens leaving Africa. A bit like your Ruckman/Fullback Neanderthal and your Rover/forward pocket genius. Personally I think Homo erectus is the most important Hominin member. Even though Homo erectus is as old as 1.8 million years, the large skull and adaptation of walking upright was a game changer. A line was drawn at the center circle for the center bounces.
Modern day humans are quite rare in the way they are categorised being the only species remaining and having no sub species. With the inclusion of the above recent discovery of a dwarf hominin member, the total number that have existed is 9 (or is it 10?). All are extinct apart from Modern Homo sapiens.
Race is a human socio-political construct based on things like demographics and neuroses and has no basis in Genetics or taxonomy.
So what are all the wars about?
Early occupation of the America's - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-chiquihuite-cave-mexico-humans-north-america
Pushes date back to upto 33,000 ya. Seems to be different folks than the later Clovis culture.
Pushes date back to upto 33,000 ya. Seems to be different folks than the later Clovis culture.
The Moyjil site at Warrnambool has some possible middens dated at 120,000 years old. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09...ambool-of-global-indigenous-heritage/12629934 I have seen other estimates of 80,000 y.o. The catch is the find is of blackened seashells and stones. No tools or definitive signs of people such as bones. I'm not sure the discoloration has been proved to be from burning, I'm showing my ignorance, but I would have thought nowadays this would be easy to prove. Higher up, and younger layers there appears to be charcoal.
This would certainly turn our current timeline of humans moving out of Africa and arriving in Australia on its head. Mitochondrial DNA suggests around 75-80,000 years for the aboriginal ancestors to have left Africa, which is regarded as strong evidence and fits in with the earliest previously claimed sites in Oz of about 65-70,000 years old, incidentally making them the oldest continuous culture that exists today. Difficult to reconcile this data with a 120,000 year site at Moyjil.
The article points to the most likely alternative explanation, sea birds dropping shells in an area that was later burned. Further studies are being done on the material but we may never know any more for sure if it's natural or cultural. I am reminded of the old expression 'extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.'
I can think of one other possible explanation if these turn out to be cultural. Perhaps these were not the Aborigines ancestors, but an even more archaic group. We know archaic humans were present all through SE Asia - Homo erectus (Java man) dates to 700,000 years ago, Homo floresiensis was running around island of Flores about 50,000 years ago and Homo luzonensis was in the Phillipines about the same time. So it's not impossible that some wandering group of archaic homos made it to Australia. Sea levels were low around that time. Remember this is just speculation, without evidence. There are aboriginal myths regarding both giants and little people, but then again, just about all cultures have similar.
ADDED - concise article about Homo erectus in SE Asia https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...e genomes,humans, Neanderthals, or Denisovans.
This would certainly turn our current timeline of humans moving out of Africa and arriving in Australia on its head. Mitochondrial DNA suggests around 75-80,000 years for the aboriginal ancestors to have left Africa, which is regarded as strong evidence and fits in with the earliest previously claimed sites in Oz of about 65-70,000 years old, incidentally making them the oldest continuous culture that exists today. Difficult to reconcile this data with a 120,000 year site at Moyjil.
The article points to the most likely alternative explanation, sea birds dropping shells in an area that was later burned. Further studies are being done on the material but we may never know any more for sure if it's natural or cultural. I am reminded of the old expression 'extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.'
I can think of one other possible explanation if these turn out to be cultural. Perhaps these were not the Aborigines ancestors, but an even more archaic group. We know archaic humans were present all through SE Asia - Homo erectus (Java man) dates to 700,000 years ago, Homo floresiensis was running around island of Flores about 50,000 years ago and Homo luzonensis was in the Phillipines about the same time. So it's not impossible that some wandering group of archaic homos made it to Australia. Sea levels were low around that time. Remember this is just speculation, without evidence. There are aboriginal myths regarding both giants and little people, but then again, just about all cultures have similar.
ADDED - concise article about Homo erectus in SE Asia https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...e genomes,humans, Neanderthals, or Denisovans.
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More rootin' and tootin' by the ancestors - https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...pulations-had-multiple-trysts-human-ancestors the original paper is here (I haven't finished reading it) https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/8/eaay5483
Here is a visual summary of gene flows. I added the question mark about erectus genes. I'm getting and I need to find my own.
Here is a visual summary of gene flows. I added the question mark about erectus genes. I'm getting and I need to find my own.
Another pre-clovis site in North America dated to around 37,000 years ago, so a different people to the current ancestors of indigenous Americans. It's a strong paper and I think the evidence is convincing and well dated.
www.frontiersin.org
It was a site for butchering animals. Long mammoth bones shaped into disposable blades were used to break down the animal carcasses before a fire helped melt down their fat. Fractures created by blunt force can be seen in the bones, according to the study. No stone tools were at the site, but researchers found flake knives made from bones with worn edges. A chemical analysis of the sediment around the mammoth bones showed that the fire was sustained and controlled rather than caused by a wildfire or lightning strike. There was also evidence of bone that had been pulverized as well as burned small animal remains, including birds, fish, rodents and lizards. The research team used CT scans to analyze the bones from the site, finding puncture wounds that would have been used to drain fat from ribs and vertebrae. The humans who butchered the mammoths were thorough.
There is a genetic ghost of Austronesians in the DNA from peoples around the Amazon basin
'Recent genomic evidence for two Old World founding populations in the Americas (Skoglund et al., 2015) offers independent corroboration that the sites described above may be cultural. A unique ancestry signal discovered in Suruí, Karitiana, and Xavante populations living today around the Amazon basin rim was found to be shared with living populations in Australia, New Guinea, and Andaman Islands. The ancestral population that contributed this signal was termed a “genetic ghost population” and given the name “Population Y” (Skoglund et al., 2015). Population Y was estimated to have occupied eastern Asia ∼50,000 years ago (Reich, 2018). Additional aDNA support came from a ∼40,000 years old human bone from Tianyuan cave in northern China that shares the Population Y signal
So I think the fat lady has sung. There were 2 waves of human colonization of the Americas, the later 16,000-year-old Clovis culture is well known but an increasing amount of evidence suggests that older American sites were home to a pre-Clovis population that had a different genetic lineage and arrived before 37,000 years ago. As the author says;
“Humans have been in the Americas for more than twice as long as archaeologists have maintained for many years,” Rowe said. “This site indicates that humans attained a global distribution far earlier than previously understood.”
Human Occupation of the North American Colorado Plateau ∼37,000 Years Ago
Calibrating human population dispersals across Earth’s surface is fundamental to assessing rates and timing of anthropogenic impacts and distinguishing ecological phenomena influenced by humans from those that were not. Here, we describe the Hartley mammoth locality, which dates to 38,900–36,250...
It was a site for butchering animals. Long mammoth bones shaped into disposable blades were used to break down the animal carcasses before a fire helped melt down their fat. Fractures created by blunt force can be seen in the bones, according to the study. No stone tools were at the site, but researchers found flake knives made from bones with worn edges. A chemical analysis of the sediment around the mammoth bones showed that the fire was sustained and controlled rather than caused by a wildfire or lightning strike. There was also evidence of bone that had been pulverized as well as burned small animal remains, including birds, fish, rodents and lizards. The research team used CT scans to analyze the bones from the site, finding puncture wounds that would have been used to drain fat from ribs and vertebrae. The humans who butchered the mammoths were thorough.
There is a genetic ghost of Austronesians in the DNA from peoples around the Amazon basin
'Recent genomic evidence for two Old World founding populations in the Americas (Skoglund et al., 2015) offers independent corroboration that the sites described above may be cultural. A unique ancestry signal discovered in Suruí, Karitiana, and Xavante populations living today around the Amazon basin rim was found to be shared with living populations in Australia, New Guinea, and Andaman Islands. The ancestral population that contributed this signal was termed a “genetic ghost population” and given the name “Population Y” (Skoglund et al., 2015). Population Y was estimated to have occupied eastern Asia ∼50,000 years ago (Reich, 2018). Additional aDNA support came from a ∼40,000 years old human bone from Tianyuan cave in northern China that shares the Population Y signal
So I think the fat lady has sung. There were 2 waves of human colonization of the Americas, the later 16,000-year-old Clovis culture is well known but an increasing amount of evidence suggests that older American sites were home to a pre-Clovis population that had a different genetic lineage and arrived before 37,000 years ago. As the author says;
“Humans have been in the Americas for more than twice as long as archaeologists have maintained for many years,” Rowe said. “This site indicates that humans attained a global distribution far earlier than previously understood.”
Earliest clear evidence of large animal butchery using stone implements dates back 2.9 million years ago.
www.abc.net.au
The only evidence of hominids are two teeth from Paranthropus boisei. These guys are reasonably well known and there has been other evidence suggesting they may have used tools. They had an average brain size of 487 cc which is a little larger than their cousins Australopithecus, at 466 cc. For comparison Chimps are around 360 cc, habilis 610 cc, erectus 950 cc and sapiens at 1400 cc
Nearly 3 million years ago, a butcher hacked up a hippo with a crafted stone tool. They may not have been human
The discovery of fossils of 2.9-million-year-old butchered hippopotamus surrounded by crafted stone tools in Kenya suggests early humans may not have been the first species to use tools.
www.abc.net.au
The only evidence of hominids are two teeth from Paranthropus boisei. These guys are reasonably well known and there has been other evidence suggesting they may have used tools. They had an average brain size of 487 cc which is a little larger than their cousins Australopithecus, at 466 cc. For comparison Chimps are around 360 cc, habilis 610 cc, erectus 950 cc and sapiens at 1400 cc
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Chinese find a mysterious hominid that may belong to the mysterious third human lineage
phys.org
'.....In an effort to determine a species for the remains, the team ruled out Denisovan. That left them with the likelihood that the fossils represent a third lineage—one that is not Denisovan or Homo erectus, and is closer to Homo sapiens. And if this is the case, the species would very likely have shared some evolutionary relationships with hominins of the Middle or Late Pleistocene, resulting in shared characteristics.'
Remains found in China may belong to third human lineage
A team of paleontologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working with colleagues from Xi'an Jiaotong University, the University of York, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Research Center on Human Evolution, has found evidence of a previously unknown human...
'.....In an effort to determine a species for the remains, the team ruled out Denisovan. That left them with the likelihood that the fossils represent a third lineage—one that is not Denisovan or Homo erectus, and is closer to Homo sapiens. And if this is the case, the species would very likely have shared some evolutionary relationships with hominins of the Middle or Late Pleistocene, resulting in shared characteristics.'
There has been evidence for a bottleneck in human evolution for sometime, the authors of a recent paper suggesting it was 900,000 to 600,000 years ago. They estimate the total population plummeted to about 1,280 breeding individuals for about 117,000 years. They feel an extreme climate event came close to wiping out our ancestral line.
www.theguardian.com
I would be interested to know if this bottleneck appears in other species and if these were Africa only or more widespread. The timing is interesting becuse it's after that more modern humans appeared, Denisovans, Neanderthals and Sapiens.
If they can't find the evidence then I'm saying it's the space aliens who wiped put all the more primitive Homo's and set up a breeding program with a thousand or so individuals.
Think I will be off to the conspiracy board now.....
Population collapse almost wiped out human ancestors, say scientists
Genomics analysis indicates that at least 800,000 years ago breeding individuals sank to as few as 1,300
I would be interested to know if this bottleneck appears in other species and if these were Africa only or more widespread. The timing is interesting becuse it's after that more modern humans appeared, Denisovans, Neanderthals and Sapiens.
If they can't find the evidence then I'm saying it's the space aliens who wiped put all the more primitive Homo's and set up a breeding program with a thousand or so individuals.
Think I will be off to the conspiracy board now.....
GreyCrow
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The original paper by Wangjie Hu et al in Science used the figures which were clickbaited of 1000 as the lowest and unreported the 100,000 as the highest
I do agree that genetic fitness would be at the forefront and inbreeding would occur significantly at the lower figure but randomly for a larger figure.
The question is how do we interpret this? As a good thing or a bad thing? Without it do we crawl along on the veldt for another 100,000 years or do we still manage to escape? Do the Neanderthals rise due to genes that function in cold weather being produced?
I think a closer bottleneck event - The Black Plague - could help us understand the previous ones. I like the Tshirt that says '' My family survived the Plague '' which has some merit
I do agree that genetic fitness would be at the forefront and inbreeding would occur significantly at the lower figure but randomly for a larger figure.
The question is how do we interpret this? As a good thing or a bad thing? Without it do we crawl along on the veldt for another 100,000 years or do we still manage to escape? Do the Neanderthals rise due to genes that function in cold weather being produced?
I think a closer bottleneck event - The Black Plague - could help us understand the previous ones. I like the Tshirt that says '' My family survived the Plague '' which has some merit
The oldest wooden structure, ever. What appears to be a woodern platform has been dated to >475,000 years ago. This is pre sapien.
www.abc.net.au
Rewriting of the history books in a number of fields is already underway.
Wooden structure from before time of homo sapiens found in Zambia
Archaeologists say they have unearthed the oldest wooden structure ever discovered, near Zambia's Kalambo Falls.
www.abc.net.au
I think it was posted earlier about footprints in New Mexico being dated to 23,000 ya, the authors have published a follow up paper stating they have confirmed the dates with radiocarbon dating of pollens and also another technique called optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) as an independent check. OSL relies on the accumulation of energy within buried grains of quartz over time.
theconversation.com
Humans got to America 7,000 years earlier than thought, new research confirms
The early settlement of the Americas is hugely contested area of archaeology.
theconversation.com
15,000 years ago some folks had some unusual funerary practices which involved cannibalism. I'm really glad the subsequent culture simply buried dead folk.
www.sciencealert.com
'People Were Eating Them': Long Ago Cannibalism Was Normal, Study Says
The rituals with which we humans farewell our dead have varied from time to time and from place to place.
www.sciencealert.com
Article discussing Neanderthals and whether they should be conceded a separate species from us. Part of the drive for this has come from an increasing appreciation of the cultural complexity and technological prowess of Neanderthals.
www.sciencealert.com
I don't know why this presents any difficulties, the old school definition of one species are individuals who breed together in the wild and produce viable offspring. We know there were multiple episodes of 'cross breeding' between sapiens and Neanderthals, they happened in the wild and given a small percentage of Neanderthals DNA is in us, the offspring were cleary viable. There is only one answer - we are the same species and they should be named Homo sapiens neaderthalensis. I think it's only scientific and cultural baggage/inertia that prevents this. It's the same for the Denisovans, they should be named H. sapiens denisova
Neanderthals Might Not Be The Separate Species We Always Thought
Stoop-backed, heavy-browed, communicating in ape-like grunts, impressions of the Neanderthal as a simple-minded brute a few steps below modern humans on the evolutionary ladder have endured since their discovery in the mid-19th century.
www.sciencealert.com
I don't know why this presents any difficulties, the old school definition of one species are individuals who breed together in the wild and produce viable offspring. We know there were multiple episodes of 'cross breeding' between sapiens and Neanderthals, they happened in the wild and given a small percentage of Neanderthals DNA is in us, the offspring were cleary viable. There is only one answer - we are the same species and they should be named Homo sapiens neaderthalensis. I think it's only scientific and cultural baggage/inertia that prevents this. It's the same for the Denisovans, they should be named H. sapiens denisova
GreyCrow
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Interesting article about the early homo's and how we survived and our cousins didn't.
Where did they all go? How Homo sapiens became the last human species left
Where did they all go? How Homo sapiens became the last human species left
The oldest evidence of modern Homo Sapiens in East Asia has been found at a Shiyu site of northeastern China, believed to be 45,000 years old. The site is a complex one and due to a few issues it's been hard to work out the details.
www.sciencealert.com
There is nothing surprising about the find, modern homos had probably been there longer but sites have been lacking, remember Australian Aboriginals arrived in Oz around 60,0000 years ago.
45,000-Year-Old Tools And Bones Reveal Earliest Evidence of Homo Sapiens in Eastern Asia
Fragments of ancient rock and bone in Eastern Asia are changing our understanding of the history of human migration.
www.sciencealert.com
The Toba super-eruption (now Lake Toba in Indonesia) has been thought to be a factor in driving modern humans out of Africa 74,000 years ago. This is about the time the ancestors of our indigenous folks left Africa. Toba super-eruption is one of the largest known explosive eruptions in the Earth's history. This eruption was the last and largest of four eruptions of the Toba Caldera Complex during the Quaternary period. Some believe it caused a severe global volcanic winter of six to ten years and contributed to a 1,000-year-long cooling episode. They also attribute it as the cause of the apparent genetic bottleneck in human evolution. Scientists have been a bit dismissive regarding the Toba super-eruption, I think it reflects a general dislike of catastrophes. To me the evidence for the significant global effects of the Toba super-eruption are overwhelming and I am pleased to see it's moved in to the main stream.
phys.org
Toba supereruption may have facilitated dispersal of modern humans out of Africa
Modern humans dispersed from Africa multiple times, but the event that led to global expansion occurred less than 100,000 years ago. Some researchers hypothesize that dispersals were restricted to "green corridors" formed during humid intervals when food was abundant and human populations...
The mysterious Denisovans who are known only by DNA traces and a phalanges or two now have a candidate skull. It belongs to Homo Longi, nicknamed 'Dragon Man', from Harbin on the Northeast China Plain, dating to at minimum 146,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene. The skull was discovered in 1933 but due to the war, it was hidden and only brought to paleoanthropologists attention in 2018. So far no DNA has been able to be extracted to confirm the theory.
www.theguardian.com
Scientists link elusive human group to 150,000-year-old Chinese ‘dragon man’
Researchers have found fresh evidence that may connect the mysterious Denisovans to the early human species Homo longi
This paper suggests Australopithecus was not in the direct line of hominids that led to us. I've only read the abstract so far, I will have a go at the paper tonight. Paleo data is often so poor & sketchy it's often hard to get a clear picture events. Folks have a tendency to find 'missing links' or shove things into a linear narrative. Apparently the idea has been running around the early primatologist community for a while.
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ralopithecines_Are_Probably_Not_Our_Ancestors
A similar thing has happened with Tetrapod evolution in the Devonian. For years the Paleos tried to put all the well known early tetrapods into a nice linear narrative of 'fin to feet', but it was crap. Not only did the order not fit, some of them had 4, 6 or even 10 digits. With retrospect this was a clear sign these animal had nothing to do with each other. What really happened was many lobe finned fish evolved legs and some form of lungs over a period of tens of millions of years. All bar one linage failed, the 5 digit linage. The drive to the land was probably in response to worsening anoxia in the shallow waters of the late Devonian. WRT early primates what were the drivers\benefits were of becoming upright is uncertain. It might sound silly, bot part of may have been able to hold infants and carry them easily over long distances.
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ralopithecines_Are_Probably_Not_Our_Ancestors
A similar thing has happened with Tetrapod evolution in the Devonian. For years the Paleos tried to put all the well known early tetrapods into a nice linear narrative of 'fin to feet', but it was crap. Not only did the order not fit, some of them had 4, 6 or even 10 digits. With retrospect this was a clear sign these animal had nothing to do with each other. What really happened was many lobe finned fish evolved legs and some form of lungs over a period of tens of millions of years. All bar one linage failed, the 5 digit linage. The drive to the land was probably in response to worsening anoxia in the shallow waters of the late Devonian. WRT early primates what were the drivers\benefits were of becoming upright is uncertain. It might sound silly, bot part of may have been able to hold infants and carry them easily over long distances.
