Susan Blackmore - Humanism

Creation film with Paul Bettany

Films
Beneath Darwin's earth-shaking discoveries lies the private struggle of the man – his loss of faith after his eldest daughter's death; the implications of his theories of existence; and his wife's deep religious sentiment, an opposition that threatens to tear the loving family apart. In one 'Creation' , Paul Bettany plays Darwin and Jennifer Connelly plays the scientist's wife Emma.

Review by Tim Jones.

The Oldest known hominin skeleton, Ardipithecus ramidus, reveals the upright origins of humankind

October 4, 2009
Briefing: The ‘missing link’
The discovery of the remains of an early hominid in northern Ethiopia has forced scientists to reassess how we have evolved over 7m years
Helen Brooks

OUT OF AFRICA
Scientists reveal skeleton 4m years old

Scientists last week unveiled a skeleton that is the closest discovery so far to the “missing link”, the presumed common ancestor shared by humans and apes. The female remains, nicknamed Ardi by researchers, were found in north-eastern Ethiopia and are believed to be 4.4m years old. A special edition of Science magazine, with 11 papers by 47 authors from 10 countries, was dedicated to the find. Ardi — short for Ardipithecus ramidus — is more than 1m years older than Lucy, the previous oldest full skeleton, which was discovered in 1974. Tim White, director of the Human Evolution Research Centre at California University, said: “This is not the common ancestor, but it's the closest we have ever been able to come.”

JIGSAW PUZZLE
Remains pieced together over 15 years

Ardi was found in Ethiopia in 1994; scientists spent the next 15 years piecing together and analysing the remains. The researchers took almost three years to sift through the volcanic ash where the fossil lay, and used the layers of soil above and below the remains to date Ardi. Erosion by desertification had caused her to come to the surface. The skeleton was found in 125 fragments, which included a skull, teeth, pelvis, hands and feet — her skull alone was broken into more than 60 pieces. One scientist said that when he saw a picture of Ardi’s pelvis in the ground it “looked like an Irish stew”. The image of the skeleton was the result of extensive digital reconstruction.

HUMANOID FEATURES
Brain, feet and teeth show nature of animal

Ardi had both human and ape-like attributes. She had big, arch-less feet adapted to clinging onto branches while climbing trees, but she would also have walked upright on two feet, albeit with a stoop and not for great distances. The size of her skull gave hints of the kind of brain she would have had. Although larger than a chimpanzee’s, it was considerably smaller than Lucy’s, suggesting that human intellect developed at a later stage. Teeth from a male skeleton were found at the same site but, unlike in apes, the canine teeth were the same size as Ardi’s. Scientists believe this shows male hominids were less aggressive than apes — which use sharp canines to fight — and were co-operative with females, which mated preferentially with smaller-fanged males.

Filling a gap. Ardipithecus provides a link between earlier and later hominins, as seen in this timeline showing important hominin fossils and taxa.

CREDITS: (TIMELINE LEFT TO RIGHT) L. PÉRON/WIKIPEDIA, B. G. RICHMOND ET AL., SCIENCE 319, 1662 (2008); © T. WHITE 2008; WIKIPEDIA; TIM WHITE; TIM WHITE

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