Were our earliest ancestors out of Africa or Europe?

[Danno 1,228]

This news report caught my eye because like many areas of science, the findings change.. even after we are

led to believe this stuff was already Settled-science.

Mix in the possibility of get millions in grants and it's hard to know what to believe.

I'll let anyone here with this background kick this around as it is certainly not my field.

Were our earliest hominid ancestors European?

* 22:00 01 June 2009 by Bob Holmes

Millions of years before early humans evolved in Africa, their ancestors may have lived in Europe, a 12-million-year-old fossil hominid from Spain suggests.

The fossil, named Anoiapithecus brevirostris by Salvador Moyà-Solà of the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology in Barcelona, Spain, and his colleagues, dates from a period of human evolution for which the record is very thin. While only the animal's face, jaw and teeth survive, their shape places it within the African hominid lineage that gave rise to gorillas, chimps and humans. However, it also has features of a related group called kenyapithecins.

Moyà-Solà says that A. brevirostris and some similar-looking kenyapithecins lived in Europe shortly after the afrohominid and kenyapithecin lineages split, and so that the divergence itself may have happened there. If he is right, our hominid ancestors lived in Europe and only later migrated to Africa, where modern humans evolved.

This "into Africa" scenario is likely to be controversial. Critics argue that discoveries like Moyà-Solà's are more likely to reflect the quality of the fossil records in Africa and Europe than offer clues to the actual origins of hominids.

Jay Kelley, a palaeobiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, points out that the fossil record from the time in question is much better in Europe than in Africa. "If you've got a record on one continent but not the other, naturally you're going to see origins of the group from the continent where you've got the record," he says.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0811730106)

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The first people were white, they were peaceful and pure, and then some of them become violent and were exiled to Africa where God gave them dark skin; some became greedy and were exiled to Israel and God cursed them with Jesus; some enjoyed cutting off heads and were exiled to Saudi Arabia and God cursed them with a puny brain; some liked to ** too much and refused to use protection, thereby straining primitive social support systems - they were exiled to India and China and God cursed them with unusually tiny penises.

The good people stayed in Europe and eventually settled America. This is why America rules and the rest of the world drools.

[rooster 1]

The first people were white, they were peaceful and pure, and then some of them become violent and were exiled to Africa where God gave them dark skin; some became greedy and were exiled to Israel and God cursed them with Jesus; some enjoyed cutting off heads and were exiled to Saudi Arabia and God cursed them with a puny brain; some liked to ** too much and refused to use protection, thereby straining primitive social support systems - they were exiled to India and China and God cursed them with unusually tiny penises.

The good people stayed in Europe and eventually settled America. This is why America rules and the rest of the world drools.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Funny...I did a search for this article and found it in the FreeRepublic. Is that where it caught your eye, Danno?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Funny...I did a search for this article and found it in the FreeRepublic. Is that where it caught your eye, Danno?

It's also on New Scientist.

Don't assume he found it on the terrorist website FR. That's not fair, we're not 100% certain he's a terrorist.

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

The first people were white, they were peaceful and pure, and then some of them become violent and were exiled to Africa where God gave them dark skin; some became greedy and were exiled to Israel and God cursed them with Jesus; some enjoyed cutting off heads and were exiled to Saudi Arabia and God cursed them with a puny brain; some liked to ** too much and refused to use protection, thereby straining primitive social support systems - they were exiled to India and China and God cursed them with unusually tiny penises.

The good people stayed in Europe and eventually settled America. This is why America rules and the rest of the world drools.

hmm my sister is married to a guy from india and just had 2nd child, im afraid for her if your above post is true!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

And for the record, Danno - New Scientist magazine is not a peer reviewed scientific journal. The original article was written for that magazine, here.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

And for the record, Danno - New Scientist magazine is not a peer reviewed scientific journal. The original article was written for that magazine, here.

It doesn't have to be, the study wasn't originally published in NS.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0811730106)

[one...two...tree 2,762]

And for the record, Danno - New Scientist magazine is not a peer reviewed scientific journal. The original article was written for that magazine, here.

It doesn't have to be, the study wasn't originally published in NS.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0811730106)

Do you a have a link to the actual study the article was referring to?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Of course not, I haven't had access to that sort of thing since I graduated.

That said, I have no reason to disbelieve that the study was published.

[Ban Hammer 13,659]

Funny...I did a search for this article and found it in the FreeRepublic. Is that where it caught your eye, Danno?

steven trolls right wing sites!

[Peikko 1,575]

This news report caught my eye because like many areas of science, the findings change.. even after we are

led to believe this stuff was already Settled-science.

Mix in the possibility of get millions in grants and it's hard to know what to believe.

I'll let anyone here with this background kick this around as it is certainly not my field.

Were our earliest hominid ancestors European?

* 22:00 01 June 2009 by Bob Holmes

Millions of years before early humans evolved in Africa, their ancestors may have lived in Europe, a 12-million-year-old fossil hominid from Spain suggests.

The fossil, named Anoiapithecus brevirostris by Salvador Moyà-Solà of the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology in Barcelona, Spain, and his colleagues, dates from a period of human evolution for which the record is very thin. While only the animal's face, jaw and teeth survive, their shape places it within the African hominid lineage that gave rise to gorillas, chimps and humans. However, it also has features of a related group called kenyapithecins.

Moyà-Solà says that A. brevirostris and some similar-looking kenyapithecins lived in Europe shortly after the afrohominid and kenyapithecin lineages split, and so that the divergence itself may have happened there. If he is right, our hominid ancestors lived in Europe and only later migrated to Africa, where modern humans evolved.

This "into Africa" scenario is likely to be controversial. Critics argue that discoveries like Moyà-Solà's are more likely to reflect the quality of the fossil records in Africa and Europe than offer clues to the actual origins of hominids.

Jay Kelley, a palaeobiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, points out that the fossil record from the time in question is much better in Europe than in Africa. "If you've got a record on one continent but not the other, naturally you're going to see origins of the group from the continent where you've got the record," he says.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0811730106)

Doesn't make a notable difference at this stage.

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

Of course not, I haven't had access to that sort of thing since I graduated.

That said, I have no reason to disbelieve that the study was published.

AJ since you predicted the life of my sister... Im wondering if you had any info on an Egyptian husband ???

[bhajishah 4]

South asians have small penises?? hmmmm

[HannahP 119]

http://zinjanthropus.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/anoiapithecus/ is a good explanation.

Miocenes ARE a crapshoot. Def. a mixture of traits.

You're still talking about an evolution in Africa. Migrate to Europe. Migrate back to form what we know now as chimps, etc.