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arabianights
- 62
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I dunno, sounds like they looked a lot like us...Buzz Bloom said:is an ancestor of humans.
The bag-like body bears a prominent mouth and associated folds, and behind them up to four conical openings on either side of the body as well as possible sensory structures. An anus may have been absent, and correspondingly the lateral openings probably served to expel water and waste material. This new form has similarities to both the vetulicolianshttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature21072.html#ref4 and vetulocystidshttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature21072.html#ref5 and collectively these findings suggest that a key step in deuterostome evolution was the development of lateral openings that subsequently were co-opted as pharyngeal gillshttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature21072.html#ref2, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature21072.html#ref3, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature21072.html#ref4, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature21072.html#ref8.
Buzz Bloom said:Regards,
Buzz
The new fossil, named "Ardi", is significant because it reveals the earliest known ancestor for humans, dating back over 4 million years. This gives scientists a better understanding of the evolution and origins of our species.
Ardi is unique in its combination of ape-like and human-like characteristics. It has a small brain, but also has human-like hands and feet that suggest it could walk upright. It also predates the well-known "Lucy" fossil by about a million years.
The fossil was discovered in Ethiopia in the Middle Awash region, a well-known site for early human fossils. It was found in a woodland environment, indicating that early human ancestors did not solely live in open grasslands as previously believed.
This discovery challenges the long-held belief that our human ancestors evolved from chimpanzees. Instead, it suggests that humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor that lived over 4 million years ago.
Scientists will continue to study Ardi and its environment to better understand its behavior and how it fits into the evolutionary timeline. They will also compare it to other early human ancestors to gain a more complete understanding of human evolution.