New human fossil discovery has everyone questioning the origin of mankind

[Judi Lynn]

By Joshua Hawkins
July 3rd, 2022 at 10:34 AM

We have long debated the origin of mankind. Some believe in God’s creation of man in his own image, while others say that mankind evolved from another species. Now, new evidence found in South Africa has reignited questions about where modern humans come from, and what species we may have left behind.

Way back in 1947, Robert Broom and John T. Robinson discovered the fossils of an ancient pre-human now known as Mrs. Ples. At the time, many believed the skull, identified as part of Australopithecus africanus, to be around 2.1 to 2.6 million years old. Many also believed the genus Australopithecus to be the likely precursor to the genus homo, marking it as the evolutionary origin of mankind.

Now, though, a new study has thrown all of these beliefs out the window. Researchers published the new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In it, authors Darryl Granger and others posit that the skull date back to between 3.4 to 3.6 million years.

That’s almost a one-million-year difference. As such, this study’s discovery has thrown a wrench into the theories that Mrs. Ples and other skeletons that were dated similarly are the precursors to modern humankind.

More:
https://bgr.com/science/new-human-fossil-discovery-has-everyone-questioning-the-origin-of-mankind/

[localroger]

1. Article is misleading clickbait; the research doesn't throw much of anything seriouis into doubt

I don't think anybody ever seriously believed that these distantly related fossils were of our direct ancestors. Rather, there were once many lines of primates, none of whom fossilized well because of the habits that would eventually make us human. One of those lines did eventually become us, but whatever we find in Africa is more likely to be cousins than grandparents just because it's a very unusual thing for an animal that lives the way we do to become fossilized at all. Most of the ones we do find will be very primitive or the result of tragic accidents that prevented their peers from performing funerary rites.

[Martin68]

2. localroger, I agree.