EVE is dead, say Michigan palaeontologists. They claim their analysis of an Australian fossil overturns the
dominant theory of the origin of our species.
Most scientists believe that Homo sapiens-the modern human-is descended from a hypothetical African
“Eve”. We marched out of Africa 100 000 years ago to spread across the globe, the theory goes, completely replacing older, local populations of hominids such as Homo erectus along the way. But some researchers, including Milford Wolpoff of the Universit y of Michigan in Ann Arbor, believe that modern humans are the product of continual worldwide mixing of populations and gene flow between ancient hominids.
For evidence of his theory, Wolpoff turned to a 15 000-year-old hominid cranium, called WLH 50, unearthed in Australia in 1982. Wolpoff’s graduate student John Hawks and his colleagues compared dozens of features on WLH 50 with an earlier Homo erectus skull from Ngandong in Java and an early African skull. If the Eve theory is correct, the Australian and Javan skulls should be unrelated. But the
researchers say that WLH 50 appears more like the Ngandong skull than the African sample both in shape, such as the sloped forehead, and in the size of features such as the ridge on the top of the cranium. That makes the Eve replacement theory wrong and our theory right," says Wolpoff.
Chris Stringer, a human origins expert at the Natural History Museum in London, says he still prefers the
replacement theory. The large size of WLH 50 makes it superficially look like the Ngandong skull, he says.
Author: Jonathan Knight
New Scientist issue: 5th August 2000
PLEASE MENTION NEW SCIENTIST AS THE SOURCE OF THIS STORY AND, IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO: http://www.newscientist.com
Tim, you bastard, Eve’s status and condition is batted around in newspapers and journals and in this forum, her condition changes almost weekly.
Eve is a great topic for “In My Humble Opinion” for not very much ever gets proven about her. However “In My Humble Opinion” isn’t where illness and deaths in the SDMb population are usually announced.
Mipsman isn’t Eve’s husband, so he wouldn’t need to be told about her death by me in “In My Humble Opinion” and I don’t think MREH is married to her or anyone else, either.
Not in this forum, you gibbering chuck of giraffe shit.
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And who made you the freaking subject matter expert? You put a topic like that up, and don’t expect people to jump? This topic, to be sure, is PRIME example of what NOT to do.
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And your point is? You don’t have one. You’re backtracking. Stand up, face the music, apologize.
You need to be more watchful of your topics, idiot. You’re going to piss a LOT of people off with your fucked-up topic.
You post this topic? In light of the recent death of Wally? You, cretin, are the apotheosis of an asshole. Your judgement is flawed beyond my belief. I cannot comprehend why you would find posting that topic to be a good idea.
I’m not going any further, cause it’s been a good day so far, and I don’t want to waste any time dismembering you in the pit. I’d advise you to NOT try and take me there either.
So, in short, the next time you try to be witty, posting something that your atrophied brain deems funny, PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS, AND THINK FOR A MINUTE!
Jois mostly hangs around in the life-science threads in GQ and IMHO. I’m pretty confident that s/he is unaware of the existence of a popular and beloved poster by the name Eve.
While this thread could probably be titled better, I think some of you owe Jois an apology for jumping on her like that. Even a quick scan of the OP should make it obvious she’s not talking about our Eve. You guys are a bit twitchy. Lighten up, it’s an honest mistake.
I would just add that some of the comments in this thread seem to me to beling in The BBQ Pit, not in IMHO. I suggest that some posters may need to familiarize themselves (again)with the descriptions of the forum on the main message board page.
Jois, I love anthropology. Thanks for posting news. This was the stuff I studied in college and it’s still my favorite science subject in newspapers and magazines. If you are anthropologist enthusiast, please keep posting any new developments. Fascinating stuff, eh?
Something never sat right with me with the “One Eve” theory. It just seemed unlikely that all other hominid groups were so wimpy that the coming of this new group could wipe them all out. It’s much more plausible, to me at least, that the groups mixed. Maybe one group was more dominant, that didn’t make the other groups extinct. Of course, this is all just hypothesis, and I’m no scientist. It just seems the more likely of the two possibilities.
Truly, I went off. Ever seen Mystery Men? Call me Mr. Furious.
I admit, I was far too strong in my response, for this forum. I doubt I would have been had I not seen the reply which begged a calling out. It was not the OP that I took issue with, but the topic of the thread, and the reply to a couple obviously concerned and offended members.
The fact is, the wording of the topic was enough to cause a knee-jerk response. Lynn made a fantastic administrative decision.
I made a weighted decision to post what I did. Am I familiar with the standards of content? Yes. Should I have posted that? In retrospect, no. This is the knee-jerk decision I spoke of. I am usually more rational in my decisions than that.
So, enough justification. I apologize to you, Jois, for my hostility. I believe now that I was out of line, and I offer my respects.