Comments on: Ancient Hominids

Ancient Hominids

dfowler — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 07:46:42 -0800

Ancient toothless skull possible first sign of early human compassion
New evidence of early human ancestry in Africa
Skill employed by early hominid tool makers

By: lodurr

lodurr — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 08:05:03 -0800

Ergh. This is a bit tea-leafy and touchy-feely to me. I don't doubt that the emergence of "compassion" could be an identifiable milestone -- I'm just not sure this marks it. People can be enormously resourceful, and if game was plentiful, I could imagine a clever old man finding ways to subsist for a year or more without the ability to chew solid food. That's not to say that i don't believe "compassion" was practiced among early hominids. I think it's practiced in lots of places; early hominids were probably not unique, just as humans aren't unique in its practice today.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 08:21:18 -0800

MetaFilter: employed by early hominid tool makers

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 08:33:37 -0800

or perhaps he lost all but one of his teeth at once, and then died. (or his teeth fell out as he starved)

By: lodurr

lodurr — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 08:39:51 -0800

[delmoi: Analysis of the skull seems to indicate that he was toothless (save one) for at least a year before he died. Also, the big issue here is not that they've found remains of old or near-crippled people; those have been found for years at later sites. This site is very early and these hominids appear to be pre-H. erectus.]

By: dfowler

dfowler — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 09:04:24 -0800

Lodurr, I was looking for information on early african ancestry to refute your point but all I could find was this . My research has failed and I concede defeat.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 09:14:12 -0800

lodurr writes "I could imagine a clever old man finding ways to subsist for a year or more without the ability to chew solid food. " But he wasn't a clever old man: "The little "people" - who stood at around four feet tall.... were short, long-armed, small-brained, thin browed." He wasn't a sapiens, he wasn't even an erectus; he was perhaps some sort of habiline, ape-like. And it wasn't for just a year: "The tooth sockets had been resorbed into the skull, suggesting that he had lost the teeth several years before dying."

By: memnock

memnock — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 15:09:18 -0800

this month's National Geographic has articles about these ideas as well.

By: davy

davy — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 15:12:18 -0800

"Will you still need me, will you still feed me..."