...
EgyptSearch Forums Post A Reply
my profile | directory login | register | search | faq | forum home

» EgyptSearch Forums » Egyptology » Inside the lab rewriting the origins of humanity » Post A Reply

Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message Icon: Icon 1     Icon 2     Icon 3     Icon 4     Icon 5     Icon 6     Icon 7    
Icon 8     Icon 9     Icon 10     Icon 11     Icon 12     Icon 13     Icon 14    
Message:

HTML is not enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.

 

Instant Graemlins Instant UBB Code™
Smile   Frown   Embarrassed   Big Grin   Wink   Razz  
Cool   Roll Eyes   Mad   Eek!   Confused    
Insert URL Hyperlink - UBB Code™   Insert Email Address - UBB Code™
Bold - UBB Code™   Italics - UBB Code™
Quote - UBB Code™   Code Tag - UBB Code™
List Start - UBB Code™   List Item - UBB Code™
List End - UBB Code™   Image - UBB Code™

What is UBB Code™?
Options


Disable Graemlins in this post.


 


T O P I C     R E V I E W
Doug M
Member # 7650
 - posted
Inside the lab rewriting the origins of humanity

quote:

When researchers published findings in June of the earliest Homo sapiens fossils ever discovered, the scientific community was abuzz.

Three-hundred-thousand years old, 100,000 years older than anything previously discovered, they stretched the timeline of Homo sapiens, our distant ancestors, further into the past. It left humanity with a new first chapter, blank and waiting to be written.
But it was where the fossils were found that was more intriguing still. Ethiopia was previously the site of the oldest Homo sapiens fossils, and East Africa has long been considered the "cradle of life." However, these new finds came from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco.

A long-held anthropological narrative became more complex. What were these hominids doing on the other side of the continent? Had they evolved in isolation to sapiens in East Africa? What happened during these extra 100,000 years, and could we determine a new starting point for humanity?

....
Excavated from what was once a barite mine 250 miles from the capital Rabat, the fossils were sent for study to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. It was here in the thermoluminescence laboratory that advanced dating technology was used to determine the fossils' age.
....

Until recently it was considered a sort of "enigmatic emergence" of Homo sapiens occurred, originating from sub-Saharan Africa, most likely East Africa, from a "restricted area" and occurring quickly. The find at Jebel Irhoud has caused this narrative to be "completely revised," says the study leader. This doesn't mean Morocco is the new cradle of life; instead, that our ancestors were much more dispersed, and much earlier, than previously thought. (It's worth noting that at the time the Sahara was not a desert, but in fact a lush green grassland, rich in flora and fauna.)
"The notion that somehow just a corner of Africa is involved in the origin of our species -- I think we can forget it," says Hublin. "If there is a Garden of Eden in Africa, this Garden of Eden is the size of the continent."

As announced earlier this year, the institute, a pioneer in the field of fossil DNA extraction and genome mapping, was unable to recover DNA samples from the current Jebel Irhoud find. But this month archaeologists returned to the excavation site to source more artifacts for testing.

They're working with a firmer platform and greater understanding of our origins than before.
"Science is a sort of perpetual reworking of knowledge," muses the project leader. "The tree of hominids is a tree with a picture that is a bit fuzzy. There are many parts that are visible, and so what we're doing is we're completing this picture ... or having a picture that is more in focus.
"I think with Jebel Irhoud, we touched an essential branch of this tree. Because it's our branch."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/25/africa/inside-africa-morocco-homo-sapiens-fossils/index.html
 
Thereal
Member # 22452
 - posted
I'm confused,are you suggesting these researcher are doing something shady or is it just a title for a thread as your phrasing makes sound it like these folks are up to no good.
 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
Just give it a few more years. Today it's Morocco, next year it will be Spain, then France before you know they will have "discovered" the origin of humanity as Aryans in Leipzig


__________________________________________

source article:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v546/n7657/full/nature22335.html

The age of the hominin fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and the origins of the Middle Stone Age

Daniel Richter, Rainer Grün, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Teresa E. Steele, Fethi Amani, Mathieu Rué, Paul Fernandes, Jean-Paul Raynal, Denis Geraads, Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer, Jean-Jacques Hublin & Shannon P. McPherron
AffiliationsContributionsCorresponding author
Nature 546, 293–296 (08 June 2017) doi:10.1038/nature22335
Received 04 May 2016 Accepted 05 April 2017 Published online 07 June 2017
Correction (June, 2017)


The timing and location of the emergence of our species and of associated behavioural changes are crucial for our understanding of human evolution. The earliest fossil attributed to a modern form of Homo sapiens comes from eastern Africa and is approximately 195 thousand years old1, 2, therefore the emergence of modern human biology is commonly placed at around 200 thousand years ago3, 4. The earliest Middle Stone Age assemblages come from eastern and southern Africa but date much earlier5, 6, 7. Here we report the ages, determined by thermoluminescence dating, of fire-heated flint artefacts obtained from new excavations at the Middle Stone Age site of Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, which are directly associated with newly discovered remains of H. sapiens8. A weighted average age places these Middle Stone Age artefacts and fossils at 315 ± 34 thousand years ago. Support is obtained through the recalculated uranium series with electron spin resonance date of 286 ± 32 thousand years ago for a tooth from the Irhoud 3 hominin mandible. These ages are also consistent with the faunal and microfaunal9 assemblages and almost double the previous age estimates for the lower part of the deposits10, 11. The north African site of Jebel Irhoud contains one of the earliest directly dated Middle Stone Age assemblages, and its associated human remains are the oldest reported for H. sapiens. The emergence of our species and of the Middle Stone Age appear to be close in time, and these data suggest a larger scale, potentially pan-African, origin for both.
 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
But wait a minute there's also this Max Plank affiliated Berberlicious article with the incredible Malcom X inspired title:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v546/n7657/full/nature22336.html


 -

New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens

Jean-Jacques Hublin, Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer, Shara E. Bailey, Sarah E. Freidline, Simon Neubauer, Matthew M. Skinner, Inga Bergmann, Adeline Le Cabec, Stefano Benazzi, Katerina Harvati & Philipp Gunz
AffiliationsContributionsCorresponding authors


Nature 546, 289–292 (08 June 2017) doi:10.1038/nature22336
Received 04 May 2016 Accepted 06 April 2017 Published online 07 June 2017
Correction (June, 2017)
 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
https://www.mpg.de/11322481/oldest-homo-sapiens-fossils-at-jebel-irhoud-morocco

 -

An international research team led by Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig, Germany) and Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer of the National Institute for Archaeology and Heritage (INSAP, Rabat, Morocco) uncovered fossil bones of Homo sapiens along with stone tools and animal bones at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco. The finds are dated to about 300 thousand years ago and represent the oldest securely dated fossil evidence of our own species. This date is 100 thousand years earlier than the previous oldest Homo sapiens fossils. The discoveries reported in two papers in the June 8th issue of the journal Nature by Hublin et al. and by Richter et al. reveal a complex evolutionary history of mankind that likely involved the entire African continent.

Both genetic data of present day humans and fossil remains point to an African origin of our own species, Homo sapiens. Previously, the oldest securely dated Homo sapiens fossils were known from the site of Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, dated to 195 thousand years ago. At Herto, also in Ethiopia, a Homo sapiens fossil is dated to 160 thousand years ago. Until now, most researchers believed that all humans living today descended from a population that lived in East Africa around 200 thousand years ago. "We used to think that there was a cradle of mankind 200 thousand years ago in east Africa, but our new data reveal that Homo sapiens spread across the entire African continent around 300 thousand years ago. Long before the out-of-Africa dispersal of Homo sapiens, there was dispersal within Africa," says palaeoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin.


The Moroccan site of Jebel Irhoud has been well known since the 1960s for its human fossils and for its Middle Stone Age artefacts. However, the interpretation of the Irhoud hominins has long been complicated by persistent uncertainties surrounding their geological age. The new excavation project, which began in 2004, resulted in the discovery of new Homo sapiens fossils in situ, increasing their number from six to 22. These finds confirm the importance of Jebel Irhoud as the oldest and richest African Middle Stone Age hominin site documenting an early stage of our species. The fossil remains from Jebel Irhoud comprise skulls, teeth, and long bones of at least five individuals. To provide a precise chronology for these finds, researchers used the thermoluminescence dating method on heated flints found in the same deposits. These flints yielded an age of approximately 300 thousand years ago and, therefore, push back the origins of our species by one hundred thousand years.

"Well dated sites of this age are exceptionally rare in Africa, but we were fortunate that so many of the Jebel Irhoud flint artefacts had been heated in the past," says geochronology expert Daniel Richter of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig (Germany), now with Freiberg Instruments GmbH. Richter explains: "This allowed us to apply thermoluminescence dating methods on the flint artefacts and establish a consistent chronology for the new hominin fossils and the layers above them." In addition, the team was able to recalculate a direct age of the Jebel Irhoud 3 mandible found in the 1960s. This mandible had been previously dated to 160 thousand years ago by a special electron spin resonance dating method. Using new measures of the radioactivity of the Jebel Irhoud sediments and as a result of methodological improvements in the method, this fossil’s newly calculated age is in agreement with the thermoluminescence ages and much older than previously realised. "We employed state of the art dating methods and adopted the most conservative approaches to accurately determine the age of Irhoud", adds Richter.

The crania of modern humans living today are characterized by a combination of features that distinguish us from our fossil relatives and ancestors: a small and gracile face, and globular braincase. The fossils from Jebel Irhoud display a modern-looking face and teeth, and a large but more archaic-looking braincase. Hublin and his team used state-of-the-art micro computed tomographic scans and statistical shape analysis based on hundreds of 3D measurements to show that the facial shape of the Jebel Irhoud fossils is almost indistinguishable from that of modern humans living today. In contrast to their modern facial morphology, however, the Jebel Irhoud crania retain a rather elongated archaic shape of the braincase. "The inner shape of the braincase reflects the shape of the brain," explains palaeoanthropologist Philipp Gunz from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. "Our findings suggest that modern human facial morphology was established early on in the history of our species, and that brain shape, and possibly brain function, evolved within the Homo sapiens lineage," says Philipp Gunz. Recently, comparisons of ancient DNA extracted from Neanderthals and Denisovans to the DNA of present day humans revealed differences in genes affecting the brain and nervous system. Evolutionary shape changes of the braincase are therefore likely related to a series of genetic changes affecting brain connectivity, organization and development that distinguish Homo sapiens from our extinct ancestors and relatives.


The morphology and age of the fossils from Jebel Irhoud also corroborate the interpretation of an enigmatic partial cranium from Florisbad, South Africa, as an early representative of Homo sapiens. The earliest Homo sapiens fossils are found across the entire African continent: Jebel Irhoud, Morocco (300 thousand years), Florisbad, South Africa (260 thousand years), and Omo Kibish, Ethiopia (195 thousand years). This indicates a complex evolutionary history of our species, possibly involving the whole African continent.

"North Africa has long been neglected in the debates surrounding the origin of our species. The spectacular discoveries from Jebel Irhoud demonstrate the tight connections of the Maghreb with the rest of the African continent at the time of Homo sapiens' emergence", says Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer.

The fossils were found in deposits containing animal bones showing evidence of having been hunted, with the most frequent species being gazelle. The stone tools associated with these fossils belong to the Middle Stone Age. The Jebel Irhoud artefacts show the use of Levallois prepared core techniques and pointed forms are the most common. Most stone tools were made from high quality flint imported into the site. Handaxes, a tool commonly found in older sites, are not present at Jebel Irhoud. Middle Stone Age artefact assemblages such as the one recovered from Jebel Irhoud are found across Africa at this time and likely speak to an adaptation that allowed Homo sapiens to disperse across the continent.

"The stone artefacts from Jebel Irhoud look very similar to ones from deposits of similar age in east Africa and in southern Africa" says Max Planck Institute archaeologist Shannon McPherron. "It is likely that the technological innovations of the Middle Stone Age in Africa are linked to the emergence of Homo sapiens." The new findings from Jebel Irhoud elucidate the evolution of Homo sapiens, and show that our species evolved much earlier than previously thought. The dispersal of Homo sapiens across all of Africa around 300 thousand years is the result of changes in both biology and behaviour.

[PG, DR, HR]

The Jebel Irhoud project is jointly conducted and supported by the Moroccan Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine and the Department of Human Evolution of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The Max Planck Society funded the TL analysis. Parts of ESR/U-series research were funded by ARC discovery grants.
 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
 -
time to celebrate
 
Doug M
Member # 7650
 - posted
Meant to post these with the original CNN article:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymfvvQoNkns


http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2017/10/19/inside-africa-the-moroccan-fossils-that-re-write-history-b.cnn

Moroccan anthropologist Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer:
 -
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/abdelouahed-ben-ncer-of-the-national-institute-of-news-photo/693471932?esource=SEO_GIS_CDN_Redirect#abdelouahed-benncer-of-the-national -institute-of-archaeology-and-in-picture-id693471932

Ethiopian Anthropologist Zeresenay_Alemseged
 -
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Academy-of-Sciences-show-traces-evolution-4261348.php
 
Clyde Winters
Member # 10129
 - posted
This is all bs. For almost 100 years the Jebel Irhoud remains was considered Neanderthal. The Max Plank Institute, flipped the script and said it was an early AMH, to deny the existence of Neanderthals in Africa. now they have made up an early date for the hominid to make it appear even older.

The limits Eurocentrists will go too, to rewrite history.
 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
Clyde look at the article title
"...the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens"
how can you not applaud that?
 
Clyde Winters
Member # 10129
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by the lioness,:
Clyde look at the article title
"...the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens"
how can you not applaud that?

...because these people are trying to put human origins in Europe instead of Africa through lies and deception instead of anthropological and historical reality.
 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by Clyde Winters:
quote:
Originally posted by the lioness,:
Clyde look at the article title
"...the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens"
how can you not applaud that?

...because these people are trying to put human origins in Europe instead of Africa through lies and deception instead of anthropological and historical reality.
I thought Morocco was in Africa
 
Clyde Winters
Member # 10129
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by the lioness,:
quote:
Originally posted by Clyde Winters:
quote:
Originally posted by the lioness,:
Clyde look at the article title
"...the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens"
how can you not applaud that?

...because these people are trying to put human origins in Europe instead of Africa through lies and deception instead of anthropological and historical reality.
I thought Morocco was in Africa
True. This is the same game they played with the so-called Anatolian migration into Europe, that suddenly became Yamnaya, HG,EF populations--instead of recognizing the African origin of these populations.

Sure, Max Plank Institute researchers will promote this hominid, and then claim, over time, he migrated into Europe and his decendants evolved into the first AMH in Europe, instead of Africa.

Changing this Neanderthal hominid into an "early homo sapien fossil", places an early hominid near Europe, so they can manufacture a European origin for AMH. The rest of the early hominids were in South and East Africa.
 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
The article says these remains are Homo Sapiens,
you are the one who kept saying the Khosians were in proto-Saharan North Africa and went into Europe, you Clyde!
 
Clyde Winters
Member # 10129
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by the lioness,:
The article says these remains are Homo Sapiens,
you are the one who kept saying the Khosians were in proto-Saharan North Africa and went into Europe, you Clyde!

Yes.They were originally Neanderthal. But the first North Africans were the Australians.
 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-fossils-from-morocco-mess-up-modern-human-origins/
 -


________________________________________________


http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/world-s-oldest-homo-sapiens-fossils-found-morocco


 -


 -
 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by Doug M:
quote:
Biologists find clues to a 'ghost' species of ancient human in Africa and say interbreeding between early hominin species was 'the norm'

  • Study found a saliva protein in modern sub-Saharan Africans to be very distinct
  • This suggests the ancient species interbred with another archaic human species
  • But, there are no fossils linked to this discovery, making it a 'ghost' species


Ancient human ancestors that can be traced to populations alive today may have engaged in ‘sexual rendezvous’ with a ‘ghost’ species of archaic humans.

In a new analysis of a protein found in saliva, researchers discovered evidence of archaic admixture in modern people living in sub-Saharan Africa, indicating that another species had contributed to the genetic material of their ancestors.

The experts say it appears that interbreeding was common among early hominin species – but, with no fossils of the mysterious species in question, it’s considered a ‘ghost.’

‘It seems that interbreeding between different early hominin species is not the exception – it’s the norm,’ said Omer Gokcumen, PhD, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo’s College of Arts and Sciences.

‘Our research traced the evolution of an important mucin protein called MUC7 that is found in saliva.

‘When we looked at the history of the gene that codes for the protein, we see the signature of archaic admixture in modern day Sub-Saharan African population.’

The researchers were investigating the purpose and origins of the MUC7 protein.

This protein is, in part, responsible for the slimy consistency of saliva, and helps it to bind to microbes.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4719274/Biologists-clues-ghost-species-ancient-human.html

 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
quote:

Not all scientists accept the premise that the Jebel Irhoud fossils belong to H. sapiens, however. Paleoanthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison notes that Hublin and his colleagues did not compare the Jebel Irhoud remains with 800,000-year-old fossils found in Spain from a species called Homo antecessor: “Maybe Jebel Irhoud was evolving into modern humans, but another possibility is that it is retaining facial morphology from an H. antecessor–like population that may have been the last common ancestor of Neandertals and later African archaic humans.”


The new fossils “raise major questions about what features define our species,” observes paleoanthropologist Marta Mirazón Lahr of the University of Cambridge. “[Is] it the globular skull, with its implications [for] brain reorganization, that makes a fossil H. sapiens? If so, the Irhoud population [represents] our close cousins” rather than members of our species. But if, on the other hand, a small face and the shape of the lower jaw are the key traits, then the Jebel Irhoud remains could be from our actual ancestors—and thus shift the focus of scientists who study modern human origins from sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean—Mirazón Lahr says.

--Ancient Fossils from Morocco Mess Up Modern Human Origins
Dated to more than 300,000 years ago, the finds raise key questions about the defining features of Homo sapiens and how our kind came to be

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-fossils-from-morocco-mess-up-modern-human-origins/




 
the lioness,
Member # 17353
 - posted
.


1982 Version:


 -
 
Doug M
Member # 7650
 - posted
The point of this is that it underlies that all hominid species and humans specifically originate in Africa.

Obviously.
 
Ish Gebor
Member # 18264
 - posted
"Ethiopia was previously the site of the oldest Homo sapiens fossils, and East Africa has long been considered the "cradle of life." However, these new finds came from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco."


Ironically I had a discussion with some scholar, on this topic late last year. He insisted on Jebel Irhoud in Morocco being older than Ethiopia. [Big Grin]
 
Ish Gebor
Member # 18264
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by the lioness,:
.


1982 Version:


 -

Nice, I am going to copy this into my Neanderthal thread.
 



Contact Us | EgyptSearch!

(c) 2015 EgyptSearch.com

Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3