What you see here, ladies and
gentlemen, are an artist's conception of Ardi -- a young lady of Ardipithecus
ramidus persuasion -- and skeletal displays of modern man and said Ardipithecus
ramidus. If you are curious, read on .... if not, have a nice day ....Two songs are included today:
"Alone," a cover of a long-ago melody by the Wilson girls, Ann and Nancy, and a
couple of guys who formed the band, Heart, performed by Floor Jansen of
Nightwish. Note the amulet and the shirt and the rings Mrs. Hannes Van Dahl is wearing. The
other video has two songs from the band, Boston, "A Man I'll Never Be" and
"Amanda." The recording is pretty sketchy and rather ghost-like in appearance,
which is appropriate because the singer, Brad Delp, chose to end his life at
age 52. The piano man in the first piece and the main guitar man in the second
is Tom Scholz, music and sound engineering genius.
Et tu, Ardipithecus ramidus
There are times when it seems
the number of Hominids and their successors who once walked the Earth are more
frequent than the number of breakfast food cereals to be found in the typical
"supermarket" of today. Hominids were present as early as several million years
ago, and various ancestors of Homo sapiens (which are us, in case you are not
aware) appeared at least as early as 700,000 years ago.
So much about life is guess work. Ever wonder,
for instance, how many of us -- "we human critters" -- have populated this blue
rock drifting in an ever-expanding universe? The number, according to an
estimate by the Population Reference Bureau, is somewhere in the neighborhood
of 108 billion. That number is based on the assumption that modern man appeared
roughly 50,000 years ago.
Now, whatever you do, do not
quote me because these numbers bounce all over the map, to put it in a colloquial
manner. I also have seen the number for the appearance of modern man range from around 200,000
years ago outward to
315,000 years, as based on the oldest Homo sapiens fossils found to date. Such estimates, for sure, affect the numerical "guess work" for the
total number who have lived. Frankly, I have no idea where the 50,000-year
number came from and have no curiosity to research it.
No matter what numbers are
used, they apply only to modern Homo sapiens and do not include any of the
billions of "ancestral beings" who came before us.
Figuring out who belongs in
what category and which came when is tricky business, to say the least. Take
Lucy, for instance, as she is described in the Wikipedia: "Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several
hundred pieces of fossilized bone representing 40 percent of the skeleton of a
female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis .... dated to about 3.2
million years ago ...." She was "unearthed" in 1971 in Ethiopia.
My interest in "this stuff" piqued
when I read a few reviews of a new book about Ardi, another Hominid evolving into Hominin -- "Fossil Men: The Quest for
the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind," by Kermit Pattison.
Again, "liberating" material from
Wikipedia: "An even more complete skeleton of a related Hominid, Ardipithecus, was found in the same Awash
Valley in Ethiopia in 1992. Ardi, like Lucy, was a hominid-becoming-hominin species,
but, dated at 4.4 million years ago, it had evolved much earlier than the afarensis
species." Like Lucy, Ardi is a she.
Pattison is a journalist and
writer who lives in Saint Paul. His work has appeared in a number of
publications, and he has extensive experience traveling to "dig sites,"
including twice to Ethiopia.
Ardi was "discovered" by a
team led by Tim White, who is considered one of the premiere and most
controversial paleontologists on the loose today. He was among those who found Lucy
two decades earlier. The discovery of Lucy, incidentally, reportedly was
celebrated at a camp party during which a tape recording of The Beatles' "Lucy in the
Sky with Diamonds" was played again and again and again. The celebrants decided to give the skeleton the same nickname.
The origin of Ardi's nickname
is somewhat less romantic: (Ardi)pithecus ramidus.
I have a soft cover edition of
the book and have been browsing it while reading scattered segments as they
attract me. At some point (theoretically), I will sit down and read it all from
start to finish and (maybe/maybe/maybe) offer my own take on it. Some of the material here (obviously), comes from the reviews
I have read.
That said, "Pattison deftly
weaves strands of science, sociology and political science into a compelling
tale that stretches over decades. His discussions of scientific theories and
phenomena are sophisticated enough for the expert yet clear and understandable
to the novice."
Well, ok, for now, if you say so ....
Pattison includes viewpoints
of skeptics in his book. Rather than indicating a direct link to
modern humans because of familiar features of some purported human ancestors,
including Ardipithecus ramidus, he states this might be explained by convergent evolution ....
which is to say the 4.4-million-year-old
Ardi group might have split off from the main stems of the ancient ape family
tree before the last common ancestor linking humans and chimps, which is
thought to have lived between eight million and four million years ago.
The opposition argument is
that the path that led to humans was likely less "ladder-like" and
rather "more bushy," full of evolutionary dead ends which branched out
and died off before the human stem had taken hold. Such a model also suggests
that finds such as Ardipithecus should not be thought of as human until and
unless more evidence is uncovered.
My own thought of the moment: I wonder if humankind will
ever know where "we" came from and the pathway "we" traveled, much less be able
to comprehend it. Anyway, if "this stuff" interests you, now you are aware of
it and I will feel free to drift off again in search of Neverland.
I will close with the final
paragraph from a review by Stephanie Hanes in The Christian Science Monitor:
"By the end, the book leaves
readers with a new sense of wonder at the origins of humankind. It certainly
disrupts the outdated, simplistic view of humans evolving from apes, turning
those diagrams of gorillas to knuckle-walkers to upright Homo sapiens into
vintage imagery from a less scientifically sophisticated past."
So be it ….
10 comments:
I think everyone is familiar with Lucy. But as you said, there are so many of them now, I can hardly keep track! (though my favorite science mag, that I've told you about before, tries to keep me "in the know") It always amazes me how much they can figure out (also with dinos) with partial bones. Then again, it's all guess work. (I guess)
I've never read the Jean Auel "Clan of the Cave Bear" series, but have the first tagged in my library app. I also have a different "early man" novel waiting in my Kindle, by an author I saw commenting on another blog. The two series place their Hominids in very different times from the past. Who knows which is closer to fact.
You're right... we may never know the true origins in this life. I like to think I will someday, though. It'll be one of the lectures I sign up for when I get to the next life. ;)
One of the "inexplicable" mysteries of life to me is why there often is so much hostility between atheists and devotees of religion. I may have mentioned this before, but one blogger said he would block me if I ever made a comment on his blog such as the one I just had. What I had just done was to include a couple of lines from Joyce Kilmer's poem, "Trees," in my comment. My reply to him was to "lighten up" .... and, I think he has ....
Another surprise for me was to learn how many towns in the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming have centers dedicated to dinosaur and other fossils, mostly those "discovered" in this region. The towns generally are pretty small and the purpose of the centers, obviously, is to serve as tourist attractions.
I never read the Jean Auel series, but am familiar with it because both my second former wife and my son read it and raved about it. After my former read one of the books, I bought a boxed set of the series for her and another for her to give to one of her sisters. Readers to the right of me, readers to the left of me .... hmmmm .... or something like that ....
My concept of heaven, should there be such a place, is sort of a large/large/large screen where anytime and anyplace could be dialed in to watch events unfold in either widescreen or close up view and thereby learn exactly what happened. Of course, there would be slow motion and rerun and multiple angle capabilities.
If I found a time machine with three places to visit, one would be to watch the crucifixion of Jesus and another would be the Little Bighorn scrap with G.A. Custer. I have yet to decide on a third. I have been to Israel a couple of times, mostly in the Haifa and Tel Aviv areas, and been able to spend a few days walking the Custer battlefield at a time when it had been burned clear by a prairie fire -- second best to having been there June 25, 1876.
Thank you, Kelly, for coming and for commenting. Take care and be safe and who knows? Possibly, our paths will cross in a hallway while I am on my way to a viewing room and you are heading for a lecture hall ....
P.S. Do you recall the name of the other "early man" novel?
Ohh dear !The cave man!!
I think your second wife, son and I have something common because I love the Jean Auel series..But the last ones ok too long.Sometimes enough is enough.
About life dear friend.Reality is not always like it is seen.I mean who are we ?Who am i ?think about that when all the things you use to think of as You really is it you ?when you look beside all those attachments as jealousy greed hate fear ect ect
All religions come down to one thing.Be a loving person.
Ok Fram short note.Ihave been out in the woods getting my -christmas tree and now let it freshen up a bit in my home smells really nice of pine tree.Also have baked those Christmas cakes donuts with a blend of cognac .Just for fun!
See you tomorrow Iwill read your post more !
Norskejenten :)
The author's name is Jacqui Murray and I have the first in her Crossroads trilogy.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/jacqui-murray/
(Fantastic Fiction is a handy website, btw)
I had an entire entry on my faith blog about "orientation" in heaven and trying to decide which tutorials to sign up for. It's a fun thought. Honestly, I don't understand the animosity between those of faith and those without (or in-fighting within the faith community). And I know I've told you about the excellent BioLogos website which promotes the union of faith and science. I'm confident enough in my beliefs not to feel threatened by those who don't share them. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. That doesn't mean I don't feel strongly about what I believe it means to be a Christian, but I do know it's not my place to pass judgement on others. Besides.... I have too many atheists and agnostics in my immediate family to go writing them off or alienating myself from them. They know how I feel. ;)
So much time and so many books have come and gone since the Jean Auel era that I cannot recall clearly why I chose not to read the "Clan of the Cave Bear" series, Anita, but I suspect it was because I did not want to commit to read the entire series if I "liked" the first book in it I read -- and, I probably would have liked and have committed. Until a few years ago, I was reading on average three books a week, some of which teetered around a thousand pages or more, and which when considered together and added to any number of other things I had to do or wanted to do, meant many late/late/late nights.
In any case, I am glad you read the books and enjoyed them. I can recall hearing only good things about the series.
I have a full-size, artificial tree in the patio and three small artificial ones in three locations inside the house. I also have some Christmas lights strung here and there, all inside. The interesting thing about them is that at some point a few years I got tired of putting them up and taking them down, so they stay up all year round and are on at least every night. One string in a kitchen window just passed its one-year anniversary for having been on 24 hours a day without being turned off.
I have been buying lefse at a store since before Thanksgiving and allowing myself two pieces a day. That is my holiday treat. I have good discipline when it comes to food. I guess with liquor, too. It will be four years a month from today since any touched by lips. Pretty good, I think, for a guy who loved liquor and rarely missed a day without a drink .... or two or three or ....
Thank you, Anita, for coming and for your comment. Take care and be safe and I envy you your "Christmas cakes donuts with a blend of cognac" ....
I see the word prolific was invented to describe Jacqui Murray.
It will take me a bit of time to track down more specifics about her, Kelly, but I will.
My small town had a theater, three pool halls and a liquor store, four grocery stores, three service stations, three restaurants and four churches. None of the churches was Catholic until a fifth church was built about the time I was going into junior high. Protestant and Catholic children were openly told not to hang out together.
My second former wife's family was practicing Catholic of the type which was near 100-percent church goers for any and all occasions Catholics have services. We were married by a justice of the peace. I think I have mentioned my encounters with a young priest and with an old one (the John Stuart Mill "incident") when I was considering conversion. My wife's older brother was killed in a car accident in California while he was in the Navy.
Somewhere along the line, I slipped into the role of coordinating things for his funeral and burial. The family had no burial plots and purchased eight (parents and five kids) and told me I could have the eighth one if I wanted it.
Somewhere along the line, the eldest sister told me no way in hell would I be buried with "her" family since I was not Catholic. I guess it is a moot point now. Not that it is pertinent, but this is the same sister who received the Jean Auel books.
Rather than try to elaborate further on your comments, I will note that I think of you as a rather remarkable and talented individual and agree that "everyone is entitled to their opinion" -- just as long as they accept the same about me and mine. My philosophy begins sort of like the biblical concept of the "golden rule" in regard to treating others as you wish to be treated .... but goes on to become a mirror-like cause and effect rule = look at me and you see a reflection of yourself.
Take care and be safe, Kelly .... I hope your holiday season will be peaceful / serene / joyful .... later, small town girl .... I think that is the name of a song or a movie or both ....
hih hih do you really have Christmas decorations on the whole year??Wow !!Yes but why not hih hih
Dont eat to much of that Lefse!
So how are you going to spend christmas this year?
Iam reading a good book The Tattooist of Auschwitz it is a Holocaust novel by New Zealand novelist Heather Morris. The book tells the story of how Slovakian Jew Lale Sokolov, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz in 1942, fell in love with a girl he was tattooing at the concentration camp The story is based on the real lives of Sokolov and his wife, Gita Furman. There has been mixed criticism towards the book, with some complimenting the novel’s compelling story based on real-life events,while claims of factual inaccuracies that bring into question miseducation around historical events has been critiqued by the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center.
I also thought at the start it was romanticized, the time spent in Auschwithc.But I wanted to give it a chance and what I came out of it was what makes a person a sadist ?How long are you willing to go to save your life of your self and others?Now I am reading the next bookin the serie Cilkas travel.It is about a polish girl, 16 years ,that became a mistress of the nazies.(sex slave=But she went furhter and became a terrible guard of the girls in the camp.When the war was over she thought she was free.But not.She spent 15 years in Sibir for what she did.An evil story that too.Sometimes I wonder what makes us different, humans ,in difficult times.While i write this i see difficult times makes us change.
Ok long reply once more hah hah
See you!
Yes, really .... year-round. I even have one room I call the "Christmas Room." Should you see it, you would know why. Christmas always has been sort of special for me, and often harried. There have been occasional years when I have been out shopping for presents Christmas Eve evening. There have been occasional years with two real Christmas trees in the house, cut in the wild by me. Sometimes both have been decorated; sometimes one has been left in its natural state so I can feel more like I am outdoors.
As for Christmas plans this year, I really have not thought about it. I suppose there is an outside chance I will head for Dakota to see my son and to have some "trigger time." Otherwise, I will "plot" a yummy Christmas Day meal and watch the Minnesota Vikings play the New Orleans Saints in the afternoon and hope to catch a choir concert or two in the evening.
With me, anything can happen, so this year the day might be just another day or expect the unexpected.
Having been in the Marine Corps and having worked in a penitentiary system, I have no misconceptions or questions or surprises about what one human critter is capable of doing to another human critter or to themselves. I could tell you some stories which would give you nightmares, I am sure, and they involve women as well as men. I think the capability to do just about anything either cruel or saintly is within each of us, but why some follow one path and some the other path form mysteries buried in the deepest recesses of our minds and souls, and, in most instances, never will be known.
I see there is a new post adrift in Norway from a young lady who resides in Bergen. I will make my way there momentarily, but will say now I have peeked at it and think you have some extraordinary photographs.
As for lefse, I have been known to clear one tray after another of it, but, those occasions were under extraordinary circumstances .... usually I am well disciplined, even with lefse ....
Thank you, Anita, for your return visit and comment .... be safe and take care and remember to wear a smile even if a mask hides it, Anita .... smiles can be seen in the eyes as well as on the lips ....
Thank you Fram!
I agree with you and well said to my question about doing bad things in bad times.If Karma excist.It will come back in a way or other I think .
When I read you have seen my next post I was surprised!I thought you was my invisibel friend that peeks into my blog!hah hah hah-I have new post yes!But then I realised I wrote to you before posting the actual post that is there now
ohh well.Christmas time.We will be only us ,Alexander and me and its great.Then I can put on my pyjamas and really enjoy the evening!
It does not matter where you are my friend but it matters that you have Internet heh heh...It is good to know there is a friend out there!
Sorry I was late looking at your reply.Was out shopping Christmas gifts and sleeping!Hope you do a new post before Christmas!
Wishing you all good!And yes smiling every day(mostly)
I enjoy your Christmas all year room heh heh! You are soo cool! :)))
Big hugs Norske jenten
There will be a post before Christmas from me. There have been times when I have attempted to observe a twelve days of Christmas theme, and I am toying with the concept again this year. We shall see.
There are times when quiet holidays are the best holidays because they give you the opportunity to dive into your memories and to measure your life as it currently exists and to plan / connive / scheme for your future. That probably is what I will be doing ....
Yes, both good and evil exist in the world and within people. Concentrating on living a good life, and awareness and vigilance regarding the people around you and the places you are in, are the keys to making your way through our maze of existence.
You should try a year-round Christmas room yourself, Anita. Whenever I go into mine, I am in happier times and everything about the world seems less worrisome.
In the meanwhile, take care and be safe and do not eat too much lutefisk, Norske jenten .... always stay beautiful and may good fortune be with you and Alexander with every step you take ....
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