 StoneMtnMinis  | 21 Oct 2017 10:27 p.m. PST |
This puts a whole new spin on early humanoids and may discredit the Africa origins theory. link |
 Editor in Chief Bill   | 21 Oct 2017 10:32 p.m. PST |
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| ZULUPAUL | 22 Oct 2017 2:27 a.m. PST |
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| Patrick R | 22 Oct 2017 2:28 a.m. PST |
Hold on folks, this is a news media article so assume a fair bit of "telephone game" between what the discoverers may claim and what's being reported. They found partial remains of very old teeth that are similar (not identical) to the teeth seen in early apes and hominids. Could be an ape or a proto hominid that strayed into Europe at some point. The fact that we don't find more evidence of such a species in Europe may point that they were not successful and died out many millions of years ago before our own ancestor species came about. So unless somebody comes up with more evidence, at best we can say that some some branch of the ape/hominid species once ranged a bit further than we previously thought. And we still have far more modern remains of hominids and the genus Homo in Africa than just a few very old teeth in one find in Europe to link them to us. |
| Patrick R | 22 Oct 2017 2:33 a.m. PST |
I should have googled before … link Likely candidate : a pliopithecoid, which is documented to have lived in Europe seven to seventeen million years ago. A species that diverged from the primate family long before apes and monkey separated into two distinct branches, hence making the Baboon a closer human relative that the original owner(s) of these fragmentary teeth. |
 Parzival | 22 Oct 2017 6:32 a.m. PST |
Remember, a popular media outlet will always go for the most provactive, attention-grabbing headline possible from any news story. Thus you get things like"Scientists Discover Possible Alien Megastructure Orbiting Distant Star" when that is among the least likely possible explanations for the actual phenomenon observed. Ditto for this story. "Teeth from 10million-year-old ape species discovered in Europe" is the actual story, but "May change human history" is more sensational and gets more readers/clicks. |
| altfritz | 22 Oct 2017 6:50 a.m. PST |
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| Bowman | 22 Oct 2017 7:26 a.m. PST |
The "may" is their out. And it's how responsible scientists speak about new discoveries. |
 x42brown | 22 Oct 2017 11:32 a.m. PST |
Well the press have tried to disprove the 'Out of Africa Hypothesis' with a tooth before. So nothing new. x42 |
| Martin From Canada | 22 Oct 2017 4:16 p.m. PST |
This puts a whole new spin on early humanoids and may discredit the Africa origins theory. And what about all of that DNA evidence that showed a single mass exodus from Africa? |
| Col Durnford | 22 Oct 2017 5:09 p.m. PST |
I'll tell you now, I have no desire to live in Africa and I'm glad we got out when we did. |
| Gunfreak | 23 Oct 2017 1:51 a.m. PST |
And what about all of that DNA evidence that showed a single mass exodus from Africa? DNA only works to find out the paternity in episodes of Jerry Springer, any claim that DNA can prove anything else is a scientific conspiracy. Idiots can physically hold a tooth, therefore idiots believe tooth over "science" like DNA |
| Bowman | 23 Oct 2017 4:17 p.m. PST |
Well to be fair the cuspid is pretty impressive and most likely the similarity to older African hominids is due to having a similar dietary preference. A case of convergent evolution. From the Patrick's link above the molar is NOT from a hominid. "Much ado about nothing", as U of Toronto paleoanthropologist Bence Viola states. |
