Evolving Thoughts

Ardi rules

Some conclusions about Ardipithecus ramidus :

1. It may be a human ancestor or it may not. We do not know.

2. It had relatively little sexual dimorphism like humans.

3. It walked on two legs, but not well, and probably lived in woodlands.

4. It ate fruit and some meat.

5. It’s not another frigging missing link.

6. It doesn’t overturn evolutionary theories (it refines and adjusts them as new evidence).

That is all…

Evolution

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Comments (17)

  1. I think you have it wrong, John. According to the media, any new discovery completely overturns everything we ever knew about evolution. Scientists live in a constant state of surprise and confusion.

    1. I saw a headline on Yahoo News that claimed that Ardi has overturned all we know about Human Evolution yet again.

      When will we ever get it right, Yahoo?

      1. Even if it is not on the direct line to us, it offers new insights into how we evolved from the common ancestor we share with chimps, the team says. taken from the BBC’s website report.

        it is possible to express it sensibly

  3. According to Australia’s ABC, Ardi is “the world’s oldest and most complete skeleton of a potential human ancestor“.

    This surprised me, because I was under the impression that the oldest potential human ancestor with a skeleton was some sort of fish.

    Sometimes pedantry is not enough of a challenge.

  5. “It is possible to express it sensibly”.

    Yes but it would be cultural unacceptable as such a repetition would allow no difference. Far safer to examine culture and ignore it’s ethnology.

    You would be unable to invent rules like the meme; ignorance would no longer be allowed to repeat. Differences could not be made. People would have nothing to sell.
    The economy would become somewhat depressed and disrupted. No profit could be gained.

    Where would the greatest show on earth be if it no longer had repeated a meme filled with sound and fury?

    If it did not have a stupidity, with which it can repeat, it would be faced with having to confront it’s own human agency along with that of others.

    It would be faced with the possibility that it subverts undermines it’s own claims to rule by law and is something of a car crash.

    Just my idle thoughts on a Saturday afternoon.

  6. Grrrr. I should have checked that after putting it through the spell check. Sorry, dyslexia does not go well with instant communication.

  7. I should have perhaps simply said selling should be avoided. But thats never going to be a succesfull or popular approach.

    But to give something a very hard sell with a distinctive loud vocal pitch and then get uptight about advertising and loss of control.

    What on earth do you expect to happen?

  8. So it’s the missing link between Ida and Tiktaalik, right?

    Yup, it’s half fish and half monkey. Creationists feel strangely elated because it proves they understood evolution all along. On the other hand, they are bummed because, well, it demonstrates evolution happens…

  9. Can we all agree that, whatever else this fossil does, it finally kills the Aquatic Ape Theory?

  10. The most interesting aspect of this whole thing to me is the coolness directed at the whole Ardi phenomenon by those who had nothing to do with the discovery and the papers. It is very evident wherever you look, including the Ardi rules above. The final “That is all” really says it all. The fact that this whole thing was done as it was, as a kind of tour de force with a gazillion papers and a tv show has obviously ticked off pretty much everyone in the community who wasn’t involved.

    1. Don’t get me wrong: Ardi is cool. The Carl Zimmer essay linked to shows why. I was just heading off some journalistic tropes, is all.

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