Today, controversial fossils are still being found that may wash away previous information on human evolution. In 2013, a very controversial fossil was found. A site in Dmanisi, Georgia has had scientists rethinking the real story on human evolution. This site contained the ancient skull, other human remains, simple stone tools, and long-extinct animals that date back to 1.8 million years ago! The remains of this site suggest scientists have named too quickly named many separate species of human ancestors in Africa who many now need to be wiped from history books. This well-preserved skull came from a watering den where ancient cheetahs and sabre tooth tigers once marched.
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Photo Credit: Sci News, Dmanisi Human.
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This fossil, fully intact, is the first found of any human ancestor that lived in the Pleistocene. The Pleistocene is when our ancestors walked out of Africa. This is also the first in-tact skull of a homo: the genus of great apes that emerged around 2.4m years ago and includes modern humans. This skull has a long face and teeth, but with a small braincase. and indicates that the earliest homo species Homo habilis and homo rudolfensis were all a part of the same species. For decades, sites have been excavated in Africa and half a dozen species of human ancestor have been named. Now, these are all on shaky ground after the discovery of this Pleistocene skull.
Photo Credit: Scientific American, Brain Shape Confirms Fossil as Oldest Human Ancestor.
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In 2003, A seven-million-year-old skull found was found in the Djurab Desert in Chad. This fossil could represent the earliest known member of the human family. Researches assigned this fossil to a new species called Sahenthropus tchadensis or Touma. Researches believe this fossil was very close to the point at which the human lineage diverged from that of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. Critics discarded this theory, noting that the skull was probably an ape's instead of that of a hominin . An analysis on the brain case and skull of the fossil supports the claims that this is indeed a hominim. The field of studying evolution can be extremely controversial, as many different theorists argue over the origin of our very own ancestry.
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I say that the field of evolution and studying human skulls is ever-changing because new evidence is being found each year. There is always going to be that missing link that archaeologists are striving to find. These new artifacts can disprove previous assumptions on human evolution or can further link two species together. Evolution is the central theoretical underpinning of biology, yet it is an ever-changing field, especially in the last few years. One fossil at a time, we are trying to discover who we are and how we came to be.