Sharing the Planet with other Humans?

--------- #1269 - Sharing Earth with Other Human Species

- Most of us think that there is only one human species on the planet Earth. However, at one time in our evolution we shared the planet with other human species. These different species were in competition with each other, and, like love and war, they were interbreeding. The genes of these multiple species are still in us today.

- Attachments - I’m thinking

- The Earth has experienced many variations of humans. There were multiple migrations of humans out of Africa at different times. Extinctions have wiped out all hominid species except the one we have today Homo Sapiens.

- Unexpected fossil finds keep showing up giving us an ever-expanding variety of human and pre-human species. The more we learn the more we know that we were not alone.

- Arpidithecus Ramidus, “ Ardi”, is a case in point. Ardi climbed trees and walked upright 4,400,000 years ago. (See Review # 1148 “ What We Can Learn from a 4,400,000 Year Old Human”). Ardi was a quadrupe in the trees and a biped on the ground. She had small canine teeth and was a woodland omnivore living in East Africa.

- Another species was the “Hobbits”, Homo Floresiensis, found on an island in Indonesia. These Hobbits existed at the same time as Homo Sapiens.

- A third story discovered with DNA sequencing is that modern humans interbred with Homo Neanderthalensis around 60,000 years ago. I think I have met some of these Neanderthals recently, judging by their mental evolvement. The Neanderthals left the Middle East and settled in Europe and Asia. Today up to 4% of the modern population outside Africa share the Neanderthal genome.

- There was a 4^th discovery in New Guinea, the Denisova species.

- Human fossil remains have been uncovered that date back 5,700,000 years.

- Australopitheus Afarensis was the famous “ Lucy” that is the earliest truly bipedal hominid found to date. She was a striding terrestrial biped with a wide environmental range in east Africa.

- Ardi lived at least 3,000,000 years after the common ancestor of humans and chimps existed.

- It is believed that the Hobbit species left Africa ( Ardi’s home) for Southeast Asia on foot 2,000,000 years ago. Their fossils were found on the island Flores. Their brain size was 1/3 that of modern humans. However, they fashioned stone tools, hunted as a team, cooked with an open fire. The Hobbits lived on Flores from 90,000 years ago up until 14,000 years ago.

- The fossil Hobbit named “ Flo” was 3.3 feet tall and weighed 60 pounds. Flo walked upright with big feet, had a prominent brow, primitive teeth, no chin, short legs and long arms. Stone tools have been found on Flores dating back 1,000,000 years. Fire pits suggested that hobbits barbequed baby elephants, huge rats, and Komodo dragons for their meals.

- So, the conclusion is that rather than having a family tree, us humans have a family bush going back 6,000,000 years. Humans separated from chimps 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 years ago, from gorillas 8,000,000 to 11,000,000 years ago, and from orangutans 14,000,000 to 20,000,000 years ago.

- 5,000,000 years ago the branch was A. Africanus.

- 3,000,000 years ago it was P. Aethiopicus

- 2,000,000 years ago there was Homo Erectus
-------------------------------------- Homo Habilis
-------------------------------------- Homo Rudofensis

-- 1,000,000 years ago ---------- Homo Floesiensis
-------------------------------------- Neanderthals
-------------------------------------- Densovaus
-------------------------------------- Homo Sapiens
-------------------------------------- Homo Heidelbergensis

- All of these branches were occupied by a human like species. Today only Homo Sapiens have survived. But, Homo Sapiens carry some of the same genes that evolved in these other species. Some were living at the same time competing for survival and even inter breeding is a shared planet. Homo Sapiens only took over about 30,000 years ago. Amazing. And, just look what we have done to the planet since then?
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707-536-3272, Sunday, July 10, 2011