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Sun 1 Jul, 2007 08:36 am
Scientists celebrate as million-year-old human tooth is found
By Jonathan Owen in London and Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
Published: 01 July 2007
Independent UK
Scientists in Spain were yesterday celebrating the discovery of a tooth from a distant human ancestor more than one million years old - the oldest human fossil found in western Europe.
The tooth, a pre-molar, was discovered on Wednesday at the Atapuerca site in Spain's Burgos province, where caves containing evidence of prehistoric human occupation have been found.
It is the most significant find in the area since 1994, when fossilised remains of Homo antecessor (pioneer), believed to date back 800,000 years, were found.
"Now we finally have the anatomical evidence of the hominids [two-legged primates] that fabricated tools more than one million years ago," said the Atapuerca Foundation in a statement. Researchers believe the tooth came from an individual aged 20 to 25 and are working to confirm thespecies. They are confident it is at least 1.2 million years old because of the age of the rock in which it was found.
"The tooth was in a good condition... it surpasses all our expectations," said José María Bermúdez de Castro, co-director of the site.
To date, the oldest evidence of humans in Europe are the 1.8 million-year-old skulls found at Dmanisi, near Tbilisi, in Georgia.
Quote:"Now we finally have the anatomical evidence of the hominids [two-legged primates] that fabricated tools more than one million years ago," said the Atapuerca Foundation
How exacltly does a tooth provide this evidence? Was it found next to a footprint and a toolbox?
Stuh
stuh505 wrote:Quote:"Now we finally have the anatomical evidence of the hominids [two-legged primates] that fabricated tools more than one million years ago," said the Atapuerca Foundation
How exacltly does a tooth provide this evidence? Was it found next to a footprint and a toolbox?
Good question, Stuh, so I searched for more information:
http://www.texnai.co.jp/shop/eng/preview/e-book/paleoart_eng_sample.pdf
and
http://whc.unesco.org/archive/2000/whc-00-conf204-inf6adde.pdf
scroll down to Atapuerca Spain.
BBB
And to think that one day one of my teeth might be found next to a Black and Decker drill.
"What primitive dental care they had back in the 21st century!"
Just goshin'. I love hearing of finds that that give us insight to the past. Thanks for posting this, BBB.
If only it had been a gold-capped one.
Didn't gus say he was looking for a tooth that dropped out?
If I go drop a tooth into the grand canyon, and years later the river dries up and the canyon fills with dust that turns into rock, will a future civilization be justified in saying that said rock is from millions of years before the present day?
no, thats just a silly premise youve made.
Vengo wrote-
Quote:If I go drop a tooth into the grand canyon, and years later the river dries up and the canyon fills with dust that turns into rock, will a future civilization be justified in saying that said rock is from millions of years before the present day?
Of course it would if it got people's names in the paper and their fissogs on telly and more funding for their department and caused celebration opportunities and all the little self-improvers all swooning and surrendering and oohing and aahing and articles in learned journals and holidays abroad on behalf of the taxpayers with research assistants and stenographers in tow.
What could possibly be more sensible than that?
Vengoropatubus wrote:If I go drop a tooth into the grand canyon, and years later the river dries up and the canyon fills with dust that turns into rock, will a future civilization be justified in saying that said rock is from millions of years before the present day?
Yes, scientists are totally fooled by stuff like this. Any time an animal dies and rolls down a hill scientists add a couple million years to when it lived, just on principle.
As a matter of fact, virtually all of modern science is based on total fantasy and misinterpreted evidence. It's mere coincidence that it all fits together into a cohesive view of the world.
That's totally what I'm saying rosborne.
Vengoropatubus wrote:That's totally what I'm saying rosborne.
Except I was being ironic (blatently).
The only sense in which you're "ironic" is that you think I didn't realize you were being sarcastic, when you didn't realize that my post was, itself, sarcasm.
Vengoropatubus wrote:The only sense in which you're "ironic" is that you think I didn't realize you were being sarcastic, when you didn't realize that my post was, itself, sarcasm.
Ok. I guess we're both being too subtle for a message board. Sorry if I took your original post the wrong way.
Too subtle!!!???? Both were steam-hammer irony.
You'll have to read Pater.
Well, there goes the neighborhood
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