Fossils of possible new human species found in China

[punk-a-doodle]

Yeah, it seems like they keep turning up. As you mentioned, many of them were recognized by local groups for a very long time, but they don't become 'scientifically' recognized until later. What seems to be realy hard is identifying newly forming species. There is the really recent:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_mosquito
and others though.

 

[AquaEyes]

This goes to show you that our concept of "species" is relative to the time period in which a population of individuals is studied, but "speciation" is a process that continues. When populations become separated and different selective pressures are found, over time new species will evolve. It's been happening and will keep happening. Life is not static as conditions change and gene frequencies within populations shift based upon natural selection.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Aye, definitely. I wonder how our documentation techniques will continue to evolve themselves, and how that will change our concept and ability to view a species and speciation in relation to time.

 

[AquaEyes]

If anyone else is interested in learning about extinct species, I highly recommend checking out the website (and forum) below:

http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/

Forum -- http://extinctanimals.proboards.com/

There's so much information there.

 

[Matthew3590]

I saw a movie in biology that I thought was hard to believe in some parts. One part was about human evolution and the Homo Sapiens "farmed" neanderthals and would keep tabs on them and when one group got too big the humans would kill some off. Then the movie stated that eventually the Homo Sapiens killed them off.

 

[AquaEyes]

I saw a movie in biology that I thought was hard to believe in some parts. One part was about human evolution and the Homo Sapiens "farmed" neanderthals and would keep tabs on them and when one group got too big the humans would kill some off. Then the movie stated that eventually the Homo Sapiens killed them off.

I have never heard of such an idea, but what you describe does sound somewhat like a scene from the novel The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. In the story, far into the future, humans are divided into two species -- one that lives above ground (the Eloi) and one below (the Morlocks). The Eloi were farmed for food by the Morlocks. The main character in the story (who traveled into the future) helped the Eloi fight back against the Morlocks. That's about the closest I can come to matching to the movie you said you saw -- but it was fiction. I never heard about that idea proposed about our species and Neanderthal.

 

[Matthew3590]

I will ask for the title of the film at school tomorrow.

 

[redhen]

Thanks for starting this thread..lots of interesting info here.

 

[Capvin]

What I find the most interesting about this recent discovery is the age of the fossils (11,000 - 12,000 years old). That means they were walking on this earth with modern humans which, to me, is quite remarkable and I think that it will really spur the question and definition of "what is a human."

 

[Matthew3590]

I think the only mammals that can be classified as human are Homo Sapiens.