Re: chimps on the savanna? Nooooo.....
David L Burkhead (r3dlb1@dax.cc.uakron.edu)
22 Oct 1995 02:46:55 GMT
In article <814280954snz@crowleyp.demon.co.uk> Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk writes:
>In article <466kr5$hlu@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>
> aduncan@mail.utexas.edu "Alex Duncan" writes:
[ 8< Chimps not found with hominid fossils >8 ]
>So:
> a) You say they could have shared the same ecosystem
> b) They have never been found together, so they probably didn't
> c) The hominids almost certainly occupied a . . . . . . ecosystem.
> (Space left for word ^^^^^^^^^^^ )
>
>We're definitely getting warmer.
Chimps (what we mean by chimps) probably did not _exist_ at the
same time as early hominids. Remember chimps are _not_ the common
ancestor. Chimps and humans both evolved from _something else_.
There's no particular reason of which I am aware that the species we
call "chimps" has been around any longer than homo sapiens, let alone
as long as genus homo or australopithecus.
That _chimps_ weren't found with hominids is no more surprising
than that _humans_ weren't found there either.
Now as to proto-chimps not being found there, that's not
particularly remarkable either. I don't recall many sites where
contemporaneous species of hominids are found together either.
Sites where _one_ species is found are rare enough that not finding a
site where _both_ were found is hardly surprising.
David L. Burkhead
r3dlb1@dax.cc.uakron.edu
d.l.burk@ix.netcom.com
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