The Important Discovery of Kenyanthropus Platyops - The Flat Faced Man of Kenya

For many years there has been a debate over where modern humans originated from. The first theory, out of Africa, discusses modern humans evolving in Africa. They migrated out to Eurasia and as the time went on their species evolved independently and developed into distinct species. All other human populations were eventually replaced with no interbreeding involved in the process and Homo sapiens had successfully dominated the rest of the world. On the other hand, the second theory, regional continuity, says that our earliest hominid ancestors had departed Africa and spread into other parts of the world later evolving into modern human beings. In this paper I will discuss the Regional continuity theory and elaborating on the Out of Africa theory. Evidence based on fossils, artifacts, and other crucial components will be discussed. Based on the evidence found I will come to a conclusion as to which theory I think best fits the origins of humans.

In the Article “Redrawing Humanity’s Family Tree” by John Noble Wilford, describes how two different skulls challenge the theories of human origins and migrations. The Central African skull, that dates back to nearly 7 million years ago, was assigned to a whole new genus and species because of its apelike and evolved hominid species. The 1.75-million-year-old Georgian skull shows evidence that the first hominids may have been intercontinental travelers who set motion the migrations that occupied the whole planet. Finally a third skull was found that is the same age and shares a resemblance but, the size of the skull suggests that the brain was smaller than expected for H. erectus.

The importance of the research being done based on this find is explained within this same article in a quote from Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London saying, “A find like this does make us question the trees people have built up of human evolution”(Noble, 2002). Not only is finding this skull phenomenal, but the implications it holds are tremendous. The idea that one fossil such as this can change the way we have thought about human evolution is a huge deal that deserves much research and even much speculation and dispute.

The fossils that are yet to be found in this project just very well may double the museum’s collection which is already at 3.5 million fossils. The project contains 16 fossil deposits that were recently unknown which makes us wonder how many more deposits are there left to discover (The Natural History Foundation, 2016). As technology advances and our understanding of these fossils grows it will be interesting to see what the future years will bring to the field of

This article shows how Paleoanthropologist David Lordkipanidze and his group of archeologist discovered a 1.8 million-year-old skull fossil that could lead to knowing more about the earliest known ancestors of humans that ventured outside of Africa. Lordkipanidze’s excavation in the Georgia site known as Dmanisi. With this archeology find, it has been concluded that all early fossil humans belong to the same species known as Homo erectus. The article explains that the Dmanisi hominins had brains less than half the size of a modern human’s, and are key to understand the evolution and expansion these ancestors experienced from Africa to Eurasia. Genetic studies indicate that their expansion began from Africa about 1.9 million years ago. The article also mentions that with these new findings there can be a better ground from where to start to understand these ancestors as how they lived and socialized. Lordkipanidze does mention that the Dmanisi “were very primitive, we think there were social groups that connected with each other and learned from each other”.

“How old is the oldest human fossil?,” If you had said about 700,000 years, you would probably have been right until just recently that is, “The September 1998 issue of Discover magazine”, reports that Ernesto Abbate, a geology professor from Florence, Italy, has just discovered the fossilized skull and teeth of a humanlike creature who might have lived, as far back as, one million years ago. Calling this creature Buia Man after the city in northeastern Africa where the remains were found. Prof. Abbate thinks he has discovered the earliest fossil that displays physical features associated with Homo sapiens, the species to which modern humans belong. Moreover, Buia Man says, Prof. Abbate also shows physical

Professor David Lordkipanidze presented some highly interesting information regarding our ancestry as humans. He is an internationally renowned scientist and paleontologist, and it was a great privilege to hear about his work in the Dmanisi where he led the discovery and analysis of the earliest human found outside of Africa.

The Article Ancestors was published in August 2001 it was published by Archaeological Institute of America and was intended for anthropologists. This article informs readers that two new fossils where found in Kenya, which gives us evidence that we did not evolve from a single ancestor. This gives us new insight not only on how species evolve but more importantly where we came from. The author put pictures in the article to show the fossils and a map to show where they were found. The pictures give readers visual evidence on how the species are related to us and that we evolved from more than one species. The author also goes into detail about the skull and skeleton parts that where found. Stating where they were found, how old they are, and

Our evidence of the relatedness between early and modern hominids is the we have the same head features such as molars, canines, protrusion of the lower face, and the same orientation of where the spine connects with the skull. The size of the these features range in size, for example the A. africanus lower jew had 2 molars that were 2 cm, each one about 1 cm in size. Our Homo sapien skull had 3 molars (meaning it had a wisdom tooth) and measure of 3 cm, again each one being around 1 cm. All of the skulls had a protruding lower face and even through all of the skulls have the spines connect in the bottom centre of the skull, but they still varying degrees

A longstanding view of human evolution holds that the first hominids to leave Africa did so with the help of bigger brains, longer legs and fancier tools than those of their predecessors. That scenario suffered a major blow a couple of years ago, however, when paleontologists working in Dmanisi, Georgia unearthed the oldest human remains yet found outside of Africa---two 1.7-million-year-old skulls belonging to early members of our genus, Homo--and discovered primitive tools alongside them. Now a new finding may topple another pillar of the theory. According to a report in the current issue of the journal Science,researchers working at the same site have recovered a third skull--one that housed a surprisingly small brain.

According to physical evidence, and theories, scholars have concluded upon a whole hypothesis. Based on their knowledge and belief, modern humans diverged from Homo sapiens between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago specifically in Africa, that between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago members of Homo sapiens left Africa, and that these

First, the broad cheek bones and broad skull are consistent of those of a robust australopithecine (McFarland). Whereas gracile australopithecines and Homo erectus species have a skinnier face and not as prominent check bones. Also, robust also have a small brain size resulting in less cranial capacity than the others. The second factor I considered was the sagittal crest that appeared to be on top of fossil #9’s cranium. For robust australopithecines, the sagittal crest is a bony ridge on top of the skull located more towards the back. (Dorey) The other crania at the station were missing this key feature which made them easy to eliminate. The third element I was looking for during my observation was the prognathism of the face, meaning the face was projecting forward (McFarland). This helped me eliminate the fossils I was unsure about. For example, fossil #8 had robust facial features like a prominent brow ridge but lacked the prognathic face robust australopithecines

Artifacts and fossils suggest approximate time frames for human migration and include shellfish remains, cave site findings, tools, seashells and three skulls found in Ethiopia belonging to a species nearly anatomically identical to modern people. Non-biological non-historical evidence has allowed historians to draw conclusions about the lives of very early humans. The Pinnacle Point shellfish showed approximately when humans began using sea creatures as a food source; the South African cave sites suggest a time frame for an early innovation period, characterized by ocher carving and early jewelry; Hafted points found at Sibudu suggest that African weaponry included spears and arrows; seashells suggest reliance on seafood for crucial fatty acids; and the skulls, combined with equally supportive DNA analysis, suggest Homo sapien African life over 150,000 years ago. Without use of non-historical evidence in various fields, the earliest of human life would have been erased because the first Homo sapiens did not yet have the words to prove their existence to the modern humans studying them. As said in the article, “To piece together humankind's great migration, scientists blend DNA analysis with archaeological and fossil evidence to try to create a coherent whole.” Non-historical evidence is necessary in understanding human history because science, combined with archaeology and fossils, does not only support theories about where humans originated from, but hints at their diets, weapons, and lifestyles. Without non-historical evidence, the story of human evolution would be largely incomplete, leaving modern historians not knowing about the early existence of the most influential species in

Africa is the global source of life, a continent which poses as a mother continent to all other continents of the world. The evolution of Africa as an entity paved way for the emergence of other entities’ origin. Buttressing the above, Africa is a global continent according to Kimbel, William, Yoel, and Donald (2004), Tudje (2002), Sayre (1999) as one of the oldest inhabited territories on the earth surface with human species that originated from the continent. They posited that during the middle years ago, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation as early as seven million (7,000,000) years ago. Fossils remains one of the several species of early ape-like humans thought to have evolved into modern man; such as

Human evolution according to research started over 6 million years ago. The outcome of the evolution process is the current human beings. Scientific studies have revealed over the years a remarkable affinity between the chimpanzees/Apes and human beings. Even though this reality is not a definitive prove that human beings evolved from apes, it does show that the human beings are in one way or another related to other primates. Scientists suppose that the humans and the primates shared a common ancestor. The subject of what makes humans what they are and their origin has been the exclusive purpose leading to many scientific studies globally (Coolidge & Wynn, 2011). Studies believe that Africa was the origin of evolution millions of years ago. Fossil remains have been discovered in different parts of Africa as well as other regions of the world. Different hominins have been discovered around the world in the last 1 million years. Thus, the different discoveries have led to comparisons between the various species of hominins to clarify on their similarities as well as differences. This essay seeks to explain whether they were distinctively different species or regional versions of the same species.