I enjoyed this article, and agree that there have been an amazing number of Hominid, and Hominin, fossils since the Leakey’s search in Olduvai Gorge fifty odd years ago.
Even since I started studying human origins academically in 1985 have there been a startling number of discoveries. I recall my first human origins course at Knox College, where we had been reading two books, one by Don Johansen, discoverer of “Lucy” and the other by Richard Leakey. One postulated Australopithecus afarensis as the ‘missing link’, and the other postulated Australopithecus africanus as the direct ancestor of our line. I had the great pleasure and privilege of meeting Richard Leakey, who visited the college to give a lecture, and also visited our class.
The interpretations are made as the discoveries are made, and that has always been the case. The really fascinating news is that improvements in extracting ancient DNA have resulted in startling new interpretations, namely the Max Planck Institute’s extraction of Neandertal DNA and comparing it with modern DNA, showing a much closer relationship between our species and the Neandertals.
I think the next fifty years will yield some startling and surprising discoveries.
Comment by James P. Zaworski — December 13, 2010 @ 3:50 pm
Even since I started studying human origins academically in 1985 have there been a startling number of discoveries. I recall my first human origins course at Knox College, where we had been reading two books, one by Don Johansen, discoverer of “Lucy” and the other by Richard Leakey. One postulated Australopithecus afarensis as the ‘missing link’, and the other postulated Australopithecus africanus as the direct ancestor of our line. I had the great pleasure and privilege of meeting Richard Leakey, who visited the college to give a lecture, and also visited our class.
The interpretations are made as the discoveries are made, and that has always been the case. The really fascinating news is that improvements in extracting ancient DNA have resulted in startling new interpretations, namely the Max Planck Institute’s extraction of Neandertal DNA and comparing it with modern DNA, showing a much closer relationship between our species and the Neandertals.
I think the next fifty years will yield some startling and surprising discoveries.
Comment by James P. Zaworski — December 13, 2010 @ 3:50 pm
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