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Originally Posted by Steffen
Besides, humanoid fossils around the Black Sea from the late miocene are nothing new. There have been several already, including Ankarapithecus, Graecopithecus and Ouranopithecus macedoniensis.
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Hi Steffen,
The paper in Nature discusses these considerably and as it says,
"Hominines were more diverse in the late Miocene of the eastern Mediterranean than previously understood"
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ayla Sevim-Erol
Eastern Mediterranean hominines may represent a terminal radiation arising from one or more older hominines in Europe, analogous to the radiation of Paranthropus presumably from an Australopithecus-like ancestor. Alternatively, given that European hominines most closely resemble gorillas, it is possible that this represents a radiation of early members of the gorilla clade, mirroring the middle and late Miocene radiation of pongines in Asia. It is also possible that European hominines represent terminal lineages of successive dispersals of hominines from Africa, though there is no evidence of multiple lineages of hominines between 13 and 10 Ma in Africa, and this hypothesis is not supported by the results of the phylogenetic analysis presented here. Finally, some researchers have focused attention on differences among eastern Mediterranean apes, suggesting that multiple lineages are present, including the earliest known hominin
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On the contrary, I don't read anything in this paper that is jingoistic at all.
It's all part of the bigger puzzle. I've journeyed along the shores of Lake
Turkana in northern Kenya, close to the borders of Ethiopia and South
Sudan, where some of the oldest finds of genus Homo have
been made. Today, that part of the Rift Valley is sparsely populated and
predominantly desert. I have happened across the occasional lone hunter,
in the desert, totally naked, clutching nothing but a spear looking for prey.
Though remarkably people somehow survive there today, it is so
inhospitable that it was likely to be a very different landscape 2 million
years ago. But no doubt still really tough and an evolutionary driving
force contributor.
