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| Humanity, Graecopithecines and the Parallel-Men; Or: Fundamental Re-Writing of the Human Sotry | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 15 2017, 07:41 PM (478 Views) | |
| flashman63 | Sep 15 2017, 07:41 PM Post #1 |
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The Herr From Terre
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Two things: First off, as some of you may recall a couple months back, they found a fossil jawbone and teeth in Greece that were highly suggestive of Homonid and ancestral Hominid dentition, suggesting a possible European origin for Homonids as a whole, dating back 7 million years. Of course, teeth aren't much to go off of and could well be the provenance of convergent evolution, making it an interesting but not quite revolutionary discovery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graecopithecus Secondly, just recently, something extraordinary has been found on Crete: evidence of bipedal locomotion dating back some 5.7 million years. But not just that-- the feet of the creatures involved are distinctly human. More human than Ardipithecus or Australopithecus, both of which are thought to be our direct ancestors. ![]() The ball of the foot, the heel, the big toe, the compact size of the foot overall, the short, evenly spaced and evenly sized toes-- all of these features are unique to the genus Homo, never found in apes. And yet, these prints are younger than not only the genus Homo itself, but the youngest known Homonid (Sahelanthropus). Now, we may speculate that this just represents a northern radiation of the Homonids in general, a dead end that died out. The problem with this is that the footsteps in Crete are more recognizably human than the species that came after it that are believed to be our direct ancestors-- that is, the Australopithecines, who had much more primitive feet despite being closer to modern humanity than these Cretan tracks in age. When we combine this with the Graecopithecus teeth, which are also more modern than the teeth of Australopithecines, we are left with something far more interesting. So, we are left with two possibilities: one, in one of the most extraordinary examples of convergent evolution ever recorded, an entire race of Parallel-Men evolved in the wilds of Southern Europe that developed not only human teeth 4 million years before the birth of the genus Homo, but human feet, which are an utterly singular structure within the natural world, found in no ape other than the genus Homo. I would speculate if these are "Parallel-Men", they probably have an evolutionary history not unlike that of my Piltdown Men in A Million Years BC-- that is, cousins or descendants of the partially bipedal Oreopithecus, who likely died out in the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Or option number two, that the genus Homo is much, much older than we once thought, the Australopithecines are distant cousins, and our Ethiopian ancestors are, in fact, relics of a migration back into Africa. In which case, the common ancestor of humans and the great apes developed human traits at an absurdly quick pace. Curiouser and curiouser. https://phys.org/news/2017-08-fossil-footprints-theories-human-evolution.html Edited by flashman63, Sep 15 2017, 07:42 PM.
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Travel back through time and space, to the edge of man's beggining... discover a time when man, woman and lizard roamed free, and untamed! It is an epoch of mammoths, a time of raptors! A tale of love in the age of tyrannosaurs! An epic from the silver screen, brought right to your door! Travel back to A Million Years BC ----------------------------------------------------- Proceedings of the Miskatonic University Department of Zoology Cosmic Horror is but a dissertation away ----------------------------------------------------- Some dickhead's deviantART | |
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| Archeoraptor | Sep 15 2017, 08:07 PM Post #2 |
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"A living paradox"
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what if australopithecus is the convergent one and is more realated to chimps than us when did chimps-bobnobes and humans diverge |
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Astarte an alt eocene world,now on long hiatus but you never know Fanauraa; The rebirth of Aotearoa future evo set in new zealand after a mass extinction coming soon......a world that was seeded with earth´s weridest and who knows what is coming next........... " I have to know what the world will be looking throw a future beyond us I have to know what could have been if fate acted in another way I have to know what lies on the unknown universe I have to know that the laws of thee universe can be broken throw The Spec I gain strength to the inner peace the is not good of evil only nature and change,the evolution of all livings beings" " Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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| flashman63 | Sep 15 2017, 08:07 PM Post #3 |
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The Herr From Terre
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7 MYA |
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Travel back through time and space, to the edge of man's beggining... discover a time when man, woman and lizard roamed free, and untamed! It is an epoch of mammoths, a time of raptors! A tale of love in the age of tyrannosaurs! An epic from the silver screen, brought right to your door! Travel back to A Million Years BC ----------------------------------------------------- Proceedings of the Miskatonic University Department of Zoology Cosmic Horror is but a dissertation away ----------------------------------------------------- Some dickhead's deviantART | |
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| Ebervalius | Sep 16 2017, 03:11 PM Post #4 |
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Transhuman
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In either case, Hominins are still of African origin, right? Man, human evolution is a mess... Hope we find more Greek fossils. |
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The Sirens of the Land of Fire Codex Ebervaliorum Spoiler: click to toggle
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| peashyjah | Sep 16 2017, 03:23 PM Post #5 |
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Bydo
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Human evolution is now much less complicated now |
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Discontinued projects: The New Ostracoderms (i might continue with this project again someday) The Americas (where in 58 million years from now in the future North and South America has both become isolated island continents) All Expansions (my attempt at expanding the universe of All Tomorrows by Nemo Ramjet aka C.M. Kosemen, started June 6, 2018) Anthropozoic (my attempt at expanding the universe of Man After Man and also a re-imagining of it, coming 2019 or 2020) New Cenozoica (my attempt at expanding the universe of The New Dinosaurs and also a re-imagining of it, also coming 2019 or 2020) All Alternatives or All Changes (a re-telling of All Tomorrows but with some minor and major "changes", coming June 10, 2018) | |
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| flashman63 | Sep 16 2017, 04:36 PM Post #6 |
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The Herr From Terre
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Yes, but the possibility exists that of Homo diverged this early and Australopitheciens are more closely related to chimps that humanity actually exists outside of Hominini |
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Travel back through time and space, to the edge of man's beggining... discover a time when man, woman and lizard roamed free, and untamed! It is an epoch of mammoths, a time of raptors! A tale of love in the age of tyrannosaurs! An epic from the silver screen, brought right to your door! Travel back to A Million Years BC ----------------------------------------------------- Proceedings of the Miskatonic University Department of Zoology Cosmic Horror is but a dissertation away ----------------------------------------------------- Some dickhead's deviantART | |
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| Tartarus | Sep 16 2017, 05:55 PM Post #7 |
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Prime Specimen
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Firstly, the hominid clade includes all the great apes, so being a hominid does not necessarily mean something has anything to do with human evolution beyond being just another of our close relatives. Secondly, the convergent evolution of human-like feet is not really all that unlikely. It is a very useful form for bipedal locomotion, far more so than the hand-like feet of quadrupedal apes. So it makes sense that if bipedalism evolved on more than one occasion among apes, as seems to be the case, then human-like feet would likewise have evolved on more than one occasion. That said, I will not rule out the possibility of the genus Homo being older than is currently thought but so far it doesn't look like there is much to suggest these footprint makers were any more than just another bipedal non-human ape. |
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| Ebervalius | Sep 16 2017, 06:20 PM Post #8 |
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Transhuman
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I guess we could just say some time traveller was in Crete.
Edited by Ebervalius, Sep 16 2017, 06:21 PM.
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The Sirens of the Land of Fire Codex Ebervaliorum Spoiler: click to toggle
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| LittleLazyLass | Sep 16 2017, 07:56 PM Post #9 |
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Proud quilt in a bag
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Some people talked about this on the discord, but how exactly do feet alone make it more compelling than transitional features across the entire skeleton? |
totally not British, b-baka! You like me (Unlike)I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess. Me What, you want me to tell you what these mean? Read First Words Maybe | |
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| lerzid | Sep 17 2017, 07:57 AM Post #10 |
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Adolescent
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Lower jaw (= holotype) and tooth (left premolar P4) of Graecopithecus freybergi |
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I like oranges I also like a wide variety of Abantu abathandekayo, Happy Birthday! Is anyone truly sane? Is anybody truly insane? Does Appa have diabetes? Is Appa the avatar? Do I look like Ajit Pai? My friends have been asking me why I removed net neutrality. Am I even real. Existential Crisis in progress, DO NOT DISTURB. | |
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