[Press Release] ETHIOPIAN SKULL FIND HELPS PIECE TOGETHER PUZZLE

Paquet Yoan (paquety@ERE.UMONTREAL.CA)
Wed, 13 Apr 1994 10:50:43 -0400

F


I was forwarded this information by the pan-african discussion list. Hope
you find it usefull.

Yoan Paquet
paquety@mistral.ere.umontreal.ca


Forwarded message:
> From owner-africa-l@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU Wed Apr 13 10:44:16 1994
> Message-Id: <199404131444.AA09587@condor.CC.UMontreal.CA>
> Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 07:26:49 -0700
> Reply-To: "Arthur R. McGee" <amcgee@NETCOM.COM>
> Sender: Pan-Africa Discussion List <AFRICA-L@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU>
> From: "Arthur R. McGee" <amcgee@NETCOM.COM>
> Subject: [Press Release] ETHIOPIAN SKULL FIND HELPS PIECE TOGETHER PUZZLE
> OF HUMAN ORIGIN (fwd)
> Comments: To: africa-l@vtvm1.BITNET, anthro-l@ubvm.BITNET, world-l@ubvm.BITNET
> To: Multiple recipients of list AFRICA-L <AFRICA-L@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 05:32:54 -0400
> From: NSF Document Mailer <stisop@stis.nsf.gov>
> Subject: [Press Release] ETHIOPIAN SKULL FIND HELPS PIECE TOGETHER PUZZLE OF HUM
> AN ORIGIN
>
> The file "pr9424" has been added to the STIS system.
> This file is a NEW file.
>
> Reference material is located at the end of this message.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Title : ETHIOPIAN SKULL FIND HELPS PIECE TOGETHER PUZZLE OF HUMAN ORIGIN
> Type : Press Release
> NSF Org: OD / LPA
> Date : March 31, 1994
> File : pr9424
>
>
>
> Michael Fluharty March 31, 1994
> (703) 306-1070 NSF PR 94-24
>
>
> ETHIOPIAN SKULL FIND HELPS PIECE
> TOGETHER PUZZLE OF HUMAN ORIGIN
> A National Science Foundation-funded expedition in
>
> Ethiopia has found a three million-year-old skull
>
> thought to be from humankind's earliest known
>
> ancestors, scientists reported today [March 31] in the
>
> British journal Nature.
>
> According to the paleoanthropologists, William
>
> Kimbel and Donald Johanson from the Institute of Human
>
> Origins in Berkeley, Ca., and Yoel Rak of Tel Aviv
>
> University, this is the first time a nearly complete
>
> skull has been found from the ancient pre-human species
>
> Australopithecus afarensis. Perhaps the species' best-
>
> known specimen is "Lucy," discovered at Hadar in
>
> Ethiopia in 1974 by Johanson.
>
> The recent discovery of the skull, with its ape-
>
> like jutting jaw, small braincase and thick protruding
>
> ridges above the eyes, helps support the theories of
>
> paleoanthropologists who maintain that all three to
>
> four million-year-old fossils found in Ethiopia's Afar
>
> region come from one species. They conclude that this
>
> species later evolved into the lineage that includes
>
> modern humans.
>
> According to the scientists, the discovery means
>
> that this small-brained, upright-walking pre-human with
>
> an ape-like body existed for nearly one million years
>
> (four to three million years ago) without significant
>
> change, or nearly 200,000 years more than previously
>
> thought.
>
> -more-
>
>
>
>
>
> -2-
>
>
>
> Kimbel, Johanson, and Rak maintain that these
> primitive upright-walking creatures did not diversify
> into distinct lineages until some time after
> three million years ago. They say the discovery
> supports their view that all pre-human specimens found
> in the region represent the same species, a species in
> which males were considerably larger than females.
>
> These scientists and others are countered by
> colleagues who believe that the variations in fossil
> size and other features are too great to have come from
> a single species. According to this other view, there
> was a more "robust" species of larger boned creatures,
> whose lineage is now extinct, which lived at the same
> time as the smaller species, which evolved into humans.
> In their view, the two distinct lines had already
> diverged before the time of Lucy, more than three
> million years ago.
>
> According to NSF physical anthropology program
> director Jonathan Friedlaender, the East African Rift
> Valley remains the "most productive source of early
> proto-human fossil finds in the world." NSF programs
> support excavations at Hadar and other nearby sites
> because these results provide important information
> about man's earliest non-ape, but very ape-like,
> ancestors, he says.
>
> Rak and his assistants found the skull in
> fragments on a hillside near a dry river bed. It is
> one of 53 such fossils found in the area during the
> past four years by the IHO team and their Ethiopian
> colleagues.
>
> The age of the skull was determined by its
> location between two layers of volcanic rock. Because
> the rock contains potassium, the rate at which
> potassium radioactively decays can be used to
> accurately date each layer using a technique called
> single crystal laser fusion, which compares the ratios
> of two isotopes in single rock crystals.
>
> -end-
>
> The National Science Foundation is an independent
> agency of the federal government established in 1950 to
> promote and advance scientific progress in the United
> States. NSF accomplishes its mission primarily by
> competitively awarding grants to educational
> institutions for research and education in the
> sciences, mathematics, and engineering.
>
> This and other information is available electronically
> on STIS, NSF's Science and Technology Information
> System. For more information about STIS contact the
> Publications Section at (703) 306-1130 and request the
> "STIS Flyer," NSF Publication #94-4, or send an E-mail
> message to stisinfo@nsf.gov (INTERNET) or stisinfo@NSF
> (BITNET).
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> End of pr9424
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> -----------------------------
> Art McGee [amcgee@netcom.com]
> -----------------------------
>