Skull Fossil Suggests Simpler Human Lineage

[mbig]

Amazing find, old enough to make a generaliztion about all human lineage.
Grouping and deciphering... Still a work in Progress.


Skull Fossil Suggests Simpler Human Lineage
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/s...y-rewrite-humans-evolutionary-story.html?_r=0
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
October 17, 2013

J.H. Matternes
An artist’s rendition of what the original owner of Skull 5 may have looked like​

After eight years spent studying a 1.8-million-year-old skull uncovered in the republic of Georgia, scientists have made a discovery that may rewrite the evolutionary history of our human genus Homo.

It would be a simpler story with fewer ancestral species. Early, diverse fossils — those currently recognized as coming from distinct species like Homo habilis, Homo erectus and others — may actually represent variation among members of a single, evolving lineage.

In other words, just as people look different from one another today, so did early hominids look different from one another, and the dissimilarity of the bones they left behind may have fooled scientists into thinking they came from different species. This was the conclusion reached by an international team of scientists led by David Lordkipanidze, a paleoanthropologist at the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, as reported Thursday in the journal Science.

The key to this revelation was a cranium excavated in 2005 and known simply as Skull 5, which scientists described as “the world’s first completely preserved adult hominid skull” of such antiquity. Unlike other Homo fossils, it had a number of primitive features: a long, apelike face, large teeth and a tiny braincase, about one-third the size of that of a modern human being. This confirmed that, contrary to some conjecture, early hominids did not need big brains to make their way out of Africa......"

Also
Skull Suggests Single Human Species Emerged From Africa, Not Several - WSJ.com

Well-Preserved Find 1.8 Million Years Old Drastically Simplifies Evolutionary Picture

 

[sawyerloggingon]

Amazing find, old enough to make a generaliztion about all human lineage.
Grouping and deciphering... Still a work in Progress.


Skull Fossil Suggests Simpler Human Lineage
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/s...y-rewrite-humans-evolutionary-story.html?_r=0
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
October 17, 2013

J.H. Matternes
An artist’s rendition of what the original owner of Skull 5 may have looked like​

Also
Skull Suggests Single Human Species Emerged From Africa, Not Several - WSJ.com

Well-Preserved Find 1.8 Million Years Old Drastically Simplifies Evolutionary Picture

HEY, where did you get my picture? :lol:

 

[falcata]

Does anyone know enough about neuroscience or anthropology to give us a decent summarization of how brain size is relative to brain power? I find this curious becasue I believe that I have read that Neanderthal's brains were actually larger than Homo Sapiens'.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

Does anyone know enough about neuroscience or anthropology to give us a decent summarization of how brain size is relative to brain power? I find this curious becasue I believe that I have read that Neanderthal's brains were actually larger than Homo Sapiens'.

That is fact, I'm kind of a cave man nut.

 

[falcata]

That is fact, I'm kind of a cave man nut.

You see I assume that it relates to the general biological engineering and contruction of the Neurons, but I want to know how size plays into that.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

You see I assume that it relates to the general biological engineering and contruction of the Neurons, but I want to know how size plays into that.

Size matters and it really mattered to cave women!:lol:

 

[falcata]

Size matters and it really mattered to cave women!:lol:

Still doesn't hurt to know how to use it though

 

[Slartibartfast]

 

[Empirica]

Does anyone know enough about neuroscience or anthropology to give us a decent summarization of how brain size is relative to brain power? I find this curious becasue I believe that I have read that Neanderthal's brains were actually larger than Homo Sapiens'.

I read somewhere that brain power is normally relative to brain size to body mass, minus excess body fat of course_

Which explains why brain size doesn't make the normally larger male more intelligent than the normally smaller female_

There are of course exceptions to every rule such as large brain/small body and vice-verse__It's those dadgum genes no doubt_

Although statistically rare, there are genetic variations that do alter the normal human standards of brain size/body mass/brain power_

And the neanderthal brain was indeed similar in size to the modern human but they were believed to be structured very differently_

Larger areas of their brain developed for survival abilities such as motor skills, sight and scent and far less for higher intelligence_

But the neanderthal gene has been found hiding in millions of modern humans throughout the world, so they're still with us_

 

[falcata]

I read somewhere that brain power is normally relative to brain size to body mass, minus excess body fat of course_

Which explains why brain size doesn't make the normally larger male more intelligent than the normally smaller female_

There are of course exceptions to every rule such as large brain/small body and vice-verse__It's those dadgum genes no doubt_

Although statistically rare, there are genetic variations that do alter the normal human standards of brain size/body mass/brain power_

And the neanderthal brain was indeed similar in size to the modern human but they were believed to be structured very differently_

Larger areas of their brain developed for survival abilities such as motor skills, sight and scent and far less for higher intelligence_

But the neanderthal gene has been found hiding in millions of modern humans throughout the world, so they're still with us_

I'm fairly sure neanderthal genes are not found throughout the world, but predominantly in Europe.

Why did you make a space symbol at the end of every line?

 

[douglas]

Does anyone know enough about neuroscience or anthropology to give us a decent summarization of how brain size is relative to brain power? I find this curious becasue I believe that I have read that Neanderthal's brains were actually larger than Homo Sapiens'.

Brain size doesn't really correlate much with intelligence; look at whales, they have car size brains, but no real intelligence. It's a function of size, neuron density (whales neurons are significantly larger than human neurons), and the instinctual way for the neurons to behave. Size*density will give you the actual amount of neurons, and then the complex interactions between them, are the major factors for intelligence. There's also the question of "what kind of intelligence?"; Neanderthals probably had much better memory than us, but less ability to process those memories. It's a tradeoff that occurs with some cases of autism.

 

[Goshin]

Brain size doesn't really correlate much with intelligence; look at whales, they have car size brains, but no real intelligence. It's a function of size, neuron density (whales neurons are significantly larger than human neurons), and the instinctual way for the neurons to behave. Size*density will give you the actual amount of neurons, and then the complex interactions between them, are the major factors for intelligence. There's also the question of "what kind of intelligence?"; Neanderthals probably had much better memory than us, but less ability to process those memories. It's a tradeoff that occurs with some cases of autism.

Actually the usual equation is comparing brain size to body size as a ratio.


Humans have the biggest brain-to-body ratio.

 

[Empirica]

I'm fairly sure neanderthal genes are not found throughout the world, but predominantly in Europe.

Why did you make a space symbol at the end of every line?

The neanderthal gene was introduced to modern humans 35 millennia ago in Europe_

And many of those Euro/Nean hybrids have since been migrating all over the world_

The neanderthal gene has long been introduced into every gene-pool on the planet_