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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is very interesting ... but there's still no
reason why Homo erectus was not the precursor for Homo sapiens - it just means
that Homo erectus didn't become extinct until long after the Homo sapiens
lineage had become established. Much like the wolf hasn't become extinct
after the domestic dog came into existence, and like the original species in
deliberately induced speciation and modern observed natural speciation survives
to co-exist with the new species.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If you take incest into account, a grandmother and
a great-grandmother can be sisters if the great-grandmother's father fathered
her daughter as well. I have a friend whose father and mother are first
cousins once-removed, not incest, but it makes his maternal grandmother his
paternal aunt - so he is his mother's second cousin, and his brother's second
cousin once-removed. And I know of several people who have aunts younger
than themselves.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There's also recent evidence that Homo sapiens and
Neanderthals interbred. <FONT face=TimesNewRoman color=#0000ff size=2><A
href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/54902583.html">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/54902583.html</A><FONT
color=#000000> Whether their progeny was fertile is another question ...
most animal species, unlike many plant species, can't interbreed and produce
fertile offspring.</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>God bless,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Stephen</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=arthurkelly@yahoo.com href="mailto:arthurkelly@yahoo.com">Art
Kelly</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=apologetics@gathman.org
href="mailto:apologetics@gathman.org">Apologetics Group</A> ; <A
title=jdfsj@ignatius.com href="mailto:jdfsj@ignatius.com">Father Fessio</A> ;
<A title=fpeffley@juno.com href="mailto:fpeffley@juno.com">Father Peffley</A>
; <A title=frphillips@atonementonline.com
href="mailto:frphillips@atonementonline.com">Father Phillips</A> ; <A
title=arochaallen@juno.com href="mailto:arochaallen@juno.com">Michele
Allen</A> ; <A title=subs@cwnews.com href="mailto:subs@cwnews.com">Catholic
World News</A> ; <A title=catholicanswers@catholic.com
href="mailto:catholicanswers@catholic.com">Catholic Answers</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, August 09, 2007 3:20
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Apologetics] Surprising fossils
throw kink in human evolution theory</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Aug. 8, 2007, 2:00PM<BR>African fossils paint messy picture of
human evolution<BR><A
href="http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5037321.html">http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5037321.html</A><BR> <BR>WASHINGTON
- Surprising fossils dug up in Africa are<BR>creating messy kinks in the
iconic straight line of<BR>human evolution with its knuckle-dragging ape
and<BR>briefcase-carrying man.<BR><BR>The new research by famed paleonoloigst
Maeve Leakey<BR>in Kenya shows our family tree is more like a wayward<BR>bush
with stubby branches, calling into question the<BR>evolution of our
ancestors.<BR><BR>The old theory was that the first and oldest species<BR>in
our family tree, Homo habilis, evolved into Homo<BR>erectus, which then became
us, Homo sapiens. But those<BR>two earlier species lived side-by-side about
1.5<BR>million years ago in parts of Kenya for at least half<BR>a million
years, Leakey and colleagues report in a<BR>paper published in Thursday's
journal Nature.<BR><BR>In 2000 Leakey found an old H. erectus complete
skull<BR>within walking distance of an upper jaw of the H.<BR>habilis, and
both dated from the same general time<BR>period. That makes it unlikely that
H. erectus evolved<BR>from H. habilis, researchers said.<BR><BR>It's the
equivalent of finding that your grandmother<BR>and great-grandmother were
sisters rather than<BR>mother-daughter, said study co-author Fred Spoor,
a<BR>professor of evolutionary anatomy at the University<BR>College in
London.<BR><BR>The two species lived near each other, but probably<BR>didn't
interact with each other, each having their own<BR>"ecological niche," Spoor
said. Homo habilis was<BR>likely more vegetarian and Homo erectus ate some
meat,<BR>he said. Like chimps and apes, "they'd just avoid each<BR>other, they
don't feel comfortable in each other's<BR>company," he said.<BR><BR>They have
some still-undiscovered common ancestor that<BR>probably lived 2 million to 3
million years ago, a<BR>time that has not left much fossil record, Spoor
said.<BR><BR>Overall what it paints for human evolution is a<BR>"chaotic kind
of looking evolutionary tree rather than<BR>this heroic march that you see
with the cartoons of an<BR>early ancestor evolving into some intermediate
and<BR>eventually unto us," Spoor said in a phone interview<BR>from a field
office of the Koobi Fora Research Project<BR>in northern Kenya.<BR><BR>That
old evolutionary cartoon, while popular with the<BR>general public, keeps
getting proven wrong and too<BR>simple, said Bill Kimbel, who praised the
latest<BR>findings. He is science director of the Institute of<BR>Human
Origins at Arizona State University and wasn't<BR>involved in the research
team.<BR><BR>"The more we know, the more complex the story gets,"<BR>he said.
Scientists used to think H. sapiens evolved<BR>from Neanderthals, he said, but
now know that both<BR>species lived during the same time period and that
we<BR>did not come from Neanderthals.<BR><BR>Now a similar discovery applies
further back in time.<BR><BR>Leakey's team spent seven years analyzing the
fossils<BR>before announcing their findings that it was time to<BR>redraw the
family tree - and rethink other ideas about<BR>human evolutionary history,
especially about our most<BR>immediate ancestor, H. erectus.<BR><BR>Because
the H. erectus skull Leakey recovered was much<BR>smaller than others,
scientists had to first prove<BR>that it was erectus and not another species
nor a<BR>genetic freak. The jaw, probably from an 18- or<BR>19-year-old
female, was adult and showed no signs of<BR>any type of malformations or
genetic mutations, Spoor<BR>said. The scientists also know it isn't H.
habilis<BR>from several distinct features on the jaw.<BR><BR>That caused
researchers to re-examine the 30 other<BR>erectus skulls they have and the
dozens of partial<BR>fossils. They realized that the females of
that<BR>species are much smaller than the males - something<BR>different from
modern man, but similar to other<BR>animals, said study co-author Susan Anton,
a New York<BR>University anthropologist. Scientists hadn't looked<BR>carefully
enough before to see that there was a<BR>distinct difference in males and
females.<BR><BR>Difference in size between males and females seem to<BR>be
related to monogamy, the researchers said. Primate<BR>species that have
same-sized males and females, such<BR>as gibbons, tend to be more monogamous.
Species that<BR>are not monogamous, such as gorillas and baboons, have<BR>much
bigger males.<BR><BR>This suggests that our ancestor H. erectus
reproduced<BR>with multiple partners.<BR><BR>The H. habilis jaw was dated at
1.44 million years<BR>ago. That is the youngest ever found from a
species<BR>that scientists originally figured died off somewhere<BR>between
1.7 and 2 million years ago, Spoor said. It<BR>enabled scientists to say that
H. erectus and H.<BR>habilis lived at the same time.<BR><BR>All the changes to
human evolutionary thought should<BR>not be considered a weakness in the
theory of<BR>evolution, Kimbel said. Rather, those are the<BR>predictable
results of getting more evidence, asking<BR>smarter questions and forming
better theories, he<BR>said.<BR><BR><BR><BR>ART KELLY, ATM-S<BR>13524
Brightfield Lane<BR>Herndon, Virginia 20171-3360<BR>(703) 904-3763
home<BR>(703) 396-6956 work<BR><A
href="mailto:arthurkelly@yahoo.com">arthurkelly@yahoo.com</A><BR><A
href="mailto:art.kelly@cox.net">art.kelly@cox.net</A><BR><A
href="mailto:ArtK135@Netscape.net">ArtK135@Netscape.net</A><BR><BR><BR>
<BR>____________________________________________________________________________________<BR>Moody
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