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Q: Why do some scientists believe Neandertals and modern humans interbred?

 

A: We know that in Europe Neandertals and modern humans coexisted for perhaps 10,000 years. In parts of Europe, archaeologists have uncovered artifacts and fossils of the same age belonging to each group. However, new genetic tests on Neandertal bones suggest that the two human forms were too incompatible to breed. By 30,000 years ago modern humans lived alone throughout Europe, and Neandertals had vanished, apparently driven into extinction by their more successful competitors.

 

Q: I’m interested in learning more about Dr. Meave Leakey’s recent find and the possibility of a new type of hominid. How does this find change what we currently believe?

 

A: Meave Leakey’s new hominid has been named Kenyapithecus platyops, “the flat-faced man of Kenya.” It was found near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in the late 1990s and is thought to date from about 3.5 million years ago.

The find is very interesting because the fossil’s anatomical features are very different from Australopithecus afarensis, the well-known ancestral human found by Don Johanson in the 1970s. The new find has tiny teeth, a distinctive jaw structure, and a relatively modern face, all of which sets it apart from A. afarensis. This is why the Leakey team gave it the name of a new genus—to allow the intellectual elbowroom for scientists to deal with the increasing diversity of hominids in East Africa about 3 million years ago.

The Kenyan with a flat face is a fascinating but not unexpected discovery. It would have been naive of us to think that there were only a few hominid forms in East Africa at that critical time when the first humans were evolving. It only goes to show how diverse our early roots were—something which has been suspected for a long time and only now proven. But the relationship between K. platyops and A. afarensis will remain a mystery until more finds are made.

 

Q: How do archaeologists remove fossilized bone that is embedded in stone?

 

A: They carefully chip away at the stone with chisels, small hammers, dental picks, and brushes—a process that can take many months. Removing the stone without damaging the fossilized bone requires infinite patience.

 


Date: 2015-02-16; view: 713


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