New Fossil Find Closes Evolution Gap

[stromboli]

http://phys.org/news/2013-12-discovery- ... -bone.html

Humans have a distinctive hand anatomy that allows them to make and use tools. Apes and other nonhuman primates do not have these distinctive anatomical features in their hands, and the point in time at which these features first appeared in human evolution is unknown. Now, a University of Missouri researcher and her international team of colleagues have found a new hand bone from a human ancestor who roamed the earth in East Africa approximately 1.42 million years ago. They suspect the bone belonged to the early human species, Homo erectus. The discovery of this bone is the earliest evidence of a modern human-like hand, indicating that this anatomical feature existed more than half a million years earlier than previously known.

"This bone is the third metacarpal in the hand, which connects to the middle finger. It was discovered at the 'Kaitio' site in West Turkana, Kenya," said Carol Ward, professor of pathology and anatomical sciences at MU. The discovery was made by a West Turkana Paleo Project team, led by Ward's colleague and co-author Fredrick Manthi of the National Museums of Kenya. "What makes this bone so distinct is that the presence of a styloid process, or projection of bone, at the end that connects to the wrist. Until now, this styloid process has been found only in us, Neandertals and other archaic humans."
The styloid process helps the hand bone lock into the wrist bones, allowing for greater amounts of pressure to be applied to the wrist and hand from a grasping thumb and fingers. Ward and her colleagues note that a lack of the styloid process created challenges for apes and earlier humans when they attempted to make and use tools. This lack of a styloid process may have increased the chances of having arthritis earlier, Ward said.
The bone was found near sites where the earliest Acheulian tools have appeared. Acheulian tools are ancient, shaped stone tools that include stone hand axes more than 1.6 million years old. Being able to make such precise tools indicates that these early humans were almost certainly using their hands for many other complex tasks as well, Ward said.

from an evolutionary standpoint, this is a big deal. We keep adding to the extensive evidence for evolutionary development of humans from the earliest primates.

[josephpalazzo]

[kilodelta]

Every new bit of supporting evidence reminds me of this scene...

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Now watch as the Creationists say that this is just a human hand bone and doesn't prove we evolved from monkeys. Nevermind how flawed that statement is, nor the fact that the hand is over a million years too early for their timeline (which they'll undoubtedly blame on "the inaccuracy of carbon dating.")

[billhilly]

It'll just mean there are 2 more "gaps".   :roll:

[aileron]

Every new bit of supporting evidence reminds me of this scene...

[ Image ]

Exactly.  Every found missing link leads to two new missing-missing links.  Doctor Banjo is a hilarious spoof of the Intelligent Design baffoons.  I love that scene.

[Thumpalumpacus]

It permits fapping ... it is therefore divine.

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Seriously, though, there's no point trying to "prove" evolution to hardcore creationists. The people who are going to be swayed will be swayed by the evidence already available. Hardcore creationists rank among those people who will never be convinced that their pet theory can ever be wrong. I mean there's still an honest to goodness Flat Earth Society, for fuck sakes. :roll:

[PickelledEggs]

[ Image ]

Oh ho ho. I am a trickster god. I am killing me

[PickelledEggs]

Seriously, though, there's no point trying to "prove" evolution to hardcore creationists. The people who are going to be swayed will be swayed by the evidence already available. Hardcore creationists rank among those people who will never be convinced that their pet theory can ever be wrong. I mean there's still an honest to goodness Flat Earth Society, for fuck sakes. :roll:

True. They don't care about reality. They care about what they believe.

Persistance is futile.

[SGOS]

But who designed that hand?

[leo]

But who designed that hand?

I dunno, the tooth fairy or eastern bunny?

[frosty]

I like the posts in this thread. You can never convince someone especially one who believes in religion that what they think is wrong. People believe whatever they want to, to feel better about their lives. One user in this forum had a signature that said "On what day again did god make the fossils"? Which I think is quite fitting for a thread of this subject.

Religionists will never believe in evolution. The ones that do either are questioning their faith or are ultra-hyper-modern hipster religionists.

[Solitary]

Every piece of new evidence from every field of science supports evolution, and yet a Scripture written by sheep herders says God had a hand (No pun intended.)in it.  :shock:  #-o    Solitary

[darsenfeld]

I've read that in homo habilis the thumb evolved due to tool use, but nothing this advanced.