Comment on Staggering Finds Show Early Humans Lived Alongside the Very Apes They Evolved from
azimir@lemmy.ml 4 days ago
For anyone who actually works with evolutionary systems and models: yup, that’s how it would work. I’m glad they found evidence that the models aren’t overturned, though likely tuned by the new info.
These are phenomenal finds. Great work, slow diggers!
JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 4 days ago
Maybe I'm not quite getting it, but with mutations and natural selection happening on a never-ending basis, isn't this exactly what's to be expected with just about every life form on the planet?
One set doesn't necessarily swiftly disappear (or at all) with the arrival of a new species, right? Especially the more widespread is their habitat, I should think.
Or is this case more about helping to shore up the record for Homo, specifically?
azimir@lemmy.ml 4 days ago
You’re getting it just fine. This is exactly what’s expected in many cases as speciation occurs. Usually the two branches diverge, but still overlap in the timeline. Over time they either both survive and continue to diverge, or one (or both) dies out.
artifex@piefed.social 4 days ago
Yeah, it's well understood that homo didn't just magically start existing and that caused all of its ancestors to suddenly disappear, but the headline makes it seem like that part was in doubt. (FWIW, I originally read the "staggering" part to be the find itself -- like, what are the odds that you find a cache of various ancient hominid teeth together?)
JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 4 days ago
Stuff and nonsense!!
It's well understood that their lordships the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Bob Dobbs one day decided to monkey with some hominids, producing H.s.s. in a lovely explosion of green gamma rays.
As a natural followup, they erased all other living examples of genus Homo, and just for larfs-- added DNA evidence of crossbreeding with ~half a dozen of those others.
As a special bonus prank, they created one more of these apes, but this one was both immortal and mostly invisible. They taught him some simple parlor tricks, then they conditioned the poor fool in to thinking that he'd created everything in existence, including the previous ones.
Anyway, that's what I heard, man.