Australopithecus Africanus STS 5, also known as Mrs. Ples, is one of the most popular fossil discoveries to date. It is also believed that the discovery of this fossil is one of the most important discoveries in all of anthropology. This fossil was discovered in April of 1947 by paleontologists Robert Broom and John T. Robinson while excavating in South Africa. The discovery of STS 5 or Mrs. Ples was and still is a very large discovery. Mrs. Ples had been discovered in the now famous cave Sterkfontein in South Africa after Broom and his associates had decided to use dynamite to breach into the cave where he believed fossils of australopithecines would be discovered. Broom had been right on his prediction and was greeted with the discovery of …show more content…
Aside from the fossil being one of the most complete discovered to date, it also helps to prove to many skeptics that fossil was in fact an ancestor to the modern day humans. Something that many scientist had discovered was that this fossil showed relations to another famous fossil, Taung Child. Mrs. Ples is believed to be a grown up version of its fellow fossil Taung Child. Both fossils have been classified as australopithecus africanus. One of the fascinating arguments that comes from the talks of Mrs. Ples is that some scientists believe that she was actually a he. Some scientists and researchers believe that she was actually a juvenile male due to the size of the hole where the canine tooth would normally be. While this has been widely debated, some researchers have concluded that Broom was right by naming the fossil Mrs rather than Mr. The reason why this debate has been so important is because that the Australopithecus Africanus is one of the species studied that show sexual dimorphism. There are many things that are up for debate when it comes to this fossil, but the one thing that is for sure, is that this fossils discovery holds much importance and helps give researchers a view into the …show more content…
For instance, the fossil being able to withstand a blast of dynamite and still stay mostly complete is incredible. Many people have agreed that this find is the most complete fossil of this specimen so far. Researchers and fellow paleontologists must have realized that in order to find a complete fossil it would be better off to endure the back breaking work and have a complete preserved fossil rather than the chances of destroying what they are looking for most. Another one of the interesting discoveries found throughout the research was that this fossil was proven to be a grown up version of another commonly known fossil, Taung Child However, one of the most important discoveries that came with this fossil is that it is the most perfect pre-human skull. Another interesting find while researching was the argument over whether or not this specimen was a male or female. Whatever the case is, this fossil is still one of the most important and interesting discoveries to
Fossils grant us opportunity of understanding about species which no longer exist on Earth- that are extinct. The prehistoric remains inform us about plants and
The Black Hills Institution crew was very careful when transporting and Sue to Hill City. After arriving, the crew worked hard and carefully on preserving Sue and avoiding to make any mistakes. The people who worked on her when removing rocks and minerals from around the fossil were considered one of the best paleontologists even though they did not have a Ph.D. This said by Phillip Manning Ph.D. It was see y many that the Black Hills Institution knew
Through this type of fossil discovery, scientists have learned much about our ancestors. They feel privileged to study them and become attached to the non-human primates they find; they even give them names. Research studies of living non-human primates have provided a glimpse into their habitats and offers clues to the nature of this species and how it leads to humans. At the same time humans over consumption and abuse by the very primates related to Ida, Lucy and Ardi are forcing non-human primates into extinction today. Because of human interaction we are destroying our ancestors.
They chose the time period of 375 million year old rocks because they thought that it was an ideal age to check the transition. They were only able to find fish found in 380 million year old rock and the animals with limbs in 365 million year old rocks. Sedimentary rocks are ideal because they are made due to the turns of the river, ocean and lakes. This is the place where fishes and animals are ideal to live and survive upon. Also the environment, in which they are made, doesn’t destroy the fossils and they preserve them. In 2004, the fossils were found on Ellesmere Island in Northern Canada. This location was chosen because this is the place where there are no humans or roads or any disturbance that would forbid them to dig anywhere they want.
Fossil discoveries are extremely significant to science and they help people better comprehend the world they live in. Without these discoveries science wouldn’t of grown like it has and people would not know much about the Earth. The fishapod and the dinomummy are two fossil discoveries that have made a gigantic impact on science. The fishapod helped fill the gap between land animals and water animals and the dinomummy proved that dinosaurs vertebrae are different than scientists have been placing them. However, the most important part is the preservation of these two ancient creatures. If they hadn’t of been preserved like they had, then they would never of been discovered and scientists wouldn’t get to learn from the remains of these creatures.
It is important because it was almost a missing link to evolution. Therefore, it could have falsified evolution. The kind of rock’s we’re very old which was the best place to look for the fossil that was also very old.
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
Piltdown Fossils was a popular scientific discovery that was revealed after three years of excavation at East Sussex, England. The significance of this discovery was that Charles Dawson had excavated human-like skull fragments and a jaw with two teeth like apes’, together with a range of animal fossils and stone tools. Based on History.com, this achievement of Dawson was notable because it revealed the unknown connection of ape and man which defined the famous Darwin’s theory of evolution (Pruitt). What was discovered about the fossils after inquiry sadly resulted to be a complete fraud announced by the British Natural History Museum. It was revealed that the teeth had been filled in and the remains from Piltdown had been stained to match each
When one thinks of important scientific figures hailing from Europe, people such as Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, or Marie Curie are the first to come to mind. Few are familiar with Mary Anning. Although an obscure figure, Anning was one of the most significant contributors to paleontology, known by some as “the greatest fossilist the world ever knew” (Torrens 257).
At the time, although it was understood that fossils were the hardened remains of dead animals, it was not yet accepted that these animals might be extinct species from hundreds of millions of years ago. So, when Anning showed up with a giant marine reptile fossil (the world’s first Ichthyosaur) it caused quite a stir, because at the time the Bible was widely used for interpreting scientific ideas and religion ruled people’s lives. Hence Anning’s findings encouraged the largely creationist population, to rethink the history of the Earth. Her fossils had helped scientists understand how things
In the science of paleontology, the history of life is studied. Paleontologists study fossils to learn the past ecologies, evolution, and the origins of humans. In order to understand the processes that have led to both the origination and destruction of organisms since life began, paleontologists incorporate both scientific knowledge and studies. Fossil findings are critically important for confirming predictions of evolution theory. Of the many discoveries that are made yearly to add depth to the understanding of evolution, an example is a recent discovery of a creature they named Tiktaalik. The Tiktaalik was uncovered to be a transitional animal between shallow-water fishes and limbed animals. The creature supports the idea that it emerged from both mammals and reptiles, suggesting that the two are related. These findings support prediction of evolution, contradicting the belief that God
Do you know who the first person to discover the Robust Zinjanthropus skull was? It was Mary Leakey. The Robust Zinjanthropus skull that mary leaky found was a very big step in us learning about evolution. She also wrote an autobiography. In the following paragraphs, I will tell you about her early life, career, and late life.
The Homo erectus fossils were first discovered in October 1891 on the island of Java, Indonesia by Dutch anatomist named Eugene Dubois during his research in finding more fossils he named “the missing link.” Initially, Dubois found a petrified skullcap “with a cranial capacity of slightly over 900 cm” by the Solo River, nearby the town of Trinil; and then, in 1892, a human femur unearthed 15 yards away from where he discovered the skullcap and so, Dubois presumed and claimed that both skullcap and femur pertain to the same individual and named it Pithecanthropus erectus. Based on the study of Javanese geology, the fossils of all Javanese Homo erectus have derived from the eastern part of the island, and so, most of the fossils belong to Early
Using the European Synchrotron, Cau’s team was able to look deep inside the rock and see that the fossil was definitely the entirety of the animal’s body and that it was “the first [discovered species] with swimming adaptations in the forelimb,” according to Cau. That marks a very significant discovery for the phylogenetic tree because it helps to fill in the missing links between aquatic animals and non-aquatic animals. The Halszka reportedly had a snout like that of crocodiles, in fact, packed to the brim with teeth in similar fashion.
Australopithecus boisei was dated through this method in 1959 by M. Leakey and her husband from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. In this area, the deposits are mainly formed by volcanic materials, which made the method available for archaeologists. They found an unknown fossil of hominid skull covered by volcanic products, which were collected twice for the examination of the ratio between potassium and argon (Clark 1962). Calculating the potassium-argon ratio each from Bed II (the level below fossil) and Bed I (the level above fossil), they proposed that the fossil could date back to from 2 mya to 1