An Individualistic Step

From: Kenneth Van Oost (Kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Wed 13 Nov 2002 - 21:43:04 GMT

  • Next message: Kenneth Van Oost: "An Individualistic Step"

    Ok, guys, now we have new found time, consider the next, what do you think !?

    It is just a draft ! Comments, remarks, suggestions, language, context, contents, faults, blunders....anything !

    This is part 1 Thanks,

    Your memetic partner, Kenneth

            Out of Africa : An Individualistic Step
     
     
      Our ancestors who for the first time left Africa didn 't do that perhaps not because they were becoming smarter. Archeologists unearthed a very small skull of a Homo Erectus, the species according to the Out of Africa- theory which first left Africa for Eurasian. The find raises questions about the notion that the migrants, thanks to their bigger brainsize, were better adapted to face the new found environment.

    The archeologists excavated the skulls at the same place where 2 more were found earlier. The new unearthed skulls in the Black Sea republic of Georgia, near Dma- nisi are the oldest human ancestor remains ever found on the Eurasian landmass and are about 1. 7 million years old.
      The 3 Dmanisi skulls look very much like the one found in Africa, known as the Homo Ergaster. The fossils confirm the hypothesis that modern man were found to be dispersed into the world. According to investigators the new found specimen is one of " a small, lighty- built individual ", although noone can say if the remains were male or female.

    But especially remarkable was the size of the skull_ " extremely small ". The brain was no more than 600 cubic centimeters, while by modern man the size is at least twice that much. For comparision, the other two fossils discovered in 2000 had a content of approximately 800 cubic centimeter.

    In spite of the remarkable difference scientists are convinced to have found now 3 fossils of the same species. Scientists did have already suggested that brainsize is one of the key players why our ancestors left Africa. According to that scenario early hominids were anabled to adapt much faster to the new environment thanks to their raised intelligence- level. The new find may call into question that idea. According to one scientist the small skull suggest that an enlargement of the brain wasn 't the only reason to leave Africa behind. A combination of factors did play up, not one single reason drove people out of Africa.

    " The Dmanisi- find is the best evidence yet of an early departure from humankind's point of origin in Africa at a time when ancestors there just evolved into long- legged species capable of walking long distances. They took advantage of their upright gait, their new found freedom allowed them to explore the world around them. So far the history, now the facts.

    The findings of simple, ' peddle- chopper '- typed stone artefacts, may un- dermine the thought that our human ancestors left Africa only when they had developed more sophisticated tools. For this we can presume that the emigration was not technological driven, but was more of a new biological nature. The suggestion is made that the driving force may have been appetite. As early humans shifted their diets to include larger amounts of animal protein, their range increased to match that of the animals they hunted. With only crudely crafted stones to use as tools and as weapons, and a brain capacity about 50% that of modern humans, the migrants were pro- bably poor hunters.

     

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