Many human 'prototypes' coexisted in Africa

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

8 August 2012 Last updated at 17:06 GMT

Many human 'prototypes' coexisted in Africa

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

Fossils from Northern Kenya show that a new species of human lived two million years ago, researchers say.

The discoveries suggests that at least three distinct species of humans co-existed in Africa.

The research adds to a growing body of evidence that runs counter to the popular perception that there was a linear evolution from monkey to ape to modern human.

The research has been published in the journal Nature.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19184370

[teenagebambam]

2. Libertarians. n/t

[exboyfil]

3. I have heard it described as

more of a bush which is pretty typical for organism evolution. That is why it is kind of silly to talk about missing links. The probability of finding an organism in the direct lineage is excedingly small (and you would never know it was either).

Trying to communicate and picture the times involved makes understanding evolution for complex organisms like mammals very difficult. I like to think about it terms of generations of animals and extrapolate something like a wolf to chihuahua and the amount of time which that took.

[samsingh]

4. this makes sense. i've always questioned the linear model. It doesn't make sense at

an evolutionary level. Animals in different parts of the world would evolve differently so there should be several types of humanoids.

[Curmudgeoness]

5. Linear evolution the popular perception?

I was in college biology 40 years ago, and that was not the way it was suggested at that time. How long ago was a linear model acceptable.

The only people who think it is linear are the anti-evolutionist, who "didn't come from a monkey" or argue why there are still monkeys and apes. Valid argument if you believe in a linear model.

[dangin]

6. Speciation today...

1st it is interesting that this may have been predicted in opening of 2001 space odyssey by the competing primate groups, one of which "wins" evolution's race by developing tool use.

Second, I'm a highly educated urban elitist intellectual with in-laws in the rural sticks who only watch Fox news. If this keeps up among humans for several hundred millinia we will speciate again. Homo-sapiens-foxamericanus is going to be an ugly, mean little species.

[jamesatemple]

7. Heh, heh!

Now that's downright funny. I don't recall the name of the wit that suggested, "Some folks claim that Man sprang from the Ape. Well, I reckon that could be true. But it seems to me that some folks didn't spring as far as others."