Phew!

[Orraloon]

29 minutes ago, andymac said:

Might have been a Fifer

We are now in the 21st century and most Fifers still think they need a passport to leave the "Kingdom". I think it's fairly unlikely that any of them got as far as the Americas 130,000 years ago? Could be wrong though.

[Ally Bongo]

The dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago

Dinosaur fossils from around that time, and before, are littered all over the world just waiting to be dug up

Yet we cannot get definitive proof that clever humans were around 130,000 years ago

Convenient ...........

[DonnyTJS]

Radio 4's Inside Science on this week's announcements.

[biffer]

2 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

The dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago

Dinosaur fossils from around that time, and before, are littered all over the world just waiting to be dug up

Yet we cannot get definitive proof that clever humans were around 130,000 years ago

Convenient ...........

That's either really bizarre or just a lack of understanding of how hard it is to do. I can tell you within a few million years for both cases absolutely definitively. 

[Ally Bongo]

1 minute ago, biffer said:

That's either really bizarre or just a lack of understanding of how hard it is to do. I can tell you within a few million years for both cases absolutely definitively. 

For a bit of humour i've tried being sarcastic and then facetious

Both have went down like a lead balloon

 

[biffer]

4 hours ago, Orraloon said:

This might be a daft question but are they super confident that it was a human species that was responsible? Could it have been another animal? I've seen otters use hammer and anvil technology.

 

As far as I understand it, the marks on the bone are indicative of constructed tools, i.e. the marks are made by something like a flint axe with a sharpened edge. Although there are multiple agencies that use found items as tools, creating tools is one of the things that ultimately defines humans. I think it's part of the definition of the genus homo but I'm not certain. Tool makers not just tool users. 

[DonnyTJS]

3 minutes ago, biffer said:

As far as I understand it, the marks on the bone are indicative of constructed tools, i.e. the marks are made by something like a flint axe with a sharpened edge. Although there are multiple agencies that use found items as tools, creating tools is one of the things that ultimately defines humans. I think it's part of the definition of the genus homo but I'm not certain. Tool makers not just tool users. 

It's becoming an increasingly grey area, I think, as observations increase. Chimps stripping twigs of leaves in order to probe termite mounds would come under tool creation, I imagine.

[DonnyTJS]

Quote

The CM site contains spiral-fractured bone and molar fragments, indicating that breakage occured while fresh. Several of these fragments also preserve evidence of percussion. The occurrence and distribution of bone, molar and stone refits suggest that breakage occurred at the site of burial. Five large cobbles (hammerstones and anvils) in the CM bone bed display use-wear and impact marks, and are hydraulically anomalous relative to the low-energy context of the enclosing sandy silt stratum.

The paper in Nature. (from the opening abstract). So I don't think there's evidence of sharp-edged tools, just percussive action on fresh bones and associated cobbles.

[phart]

 

13 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

For a bit of humour i've tried being sarcastic and then facetious

Both have went down like a lead balloon

 

To be fair Ally it was me and Biffer, both in a science thread. That's the toughest crowd on the TAMB, beyond making tax case jokes.

[Ally Bongo]

6 minutes ago, phart said:

 

To be fair Ally it was me and Biffer, both in a science thread. That's the toughest crowd on the TAMB, beyond making tax case jokes.

Thanks

That makes my comedic ego deflation a little easier

[biffer]

8 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

Thanks

That makes my comedic ego deflation a little easier

Yeah, it's a tough crowd! 

[Larky Masher]

13 hours ago, biffer said:

As far as I understand it, the marks on the bone could be indicative of constructed tools, i.e. the marks may have been made by something like a flint axe with a sharpened edge. Although there are multiple agencies that use found items as tools, creating tools is one of the things that ultimately defines humans. I think it's part of the definition of the genus homo but I'm not certain. Tool makers not just tool users. 

Just a wee tweak.

[thplinth]

19 hours ago, phart said:

 

To be fair Ally it was me and Biffer, both in a science thread. That's the toughest crowd on the TAMB, beyond making tax case jokes.

only just though.

[Toepoke]

22 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

The dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago

Dinosaur fossils from around that time, and before, are littered all over the world just waiting to be dug up

As an aside I like the suggestion that the myths of dragons came from our ancestors discovering complete dinosaur skeletons.  The ancient history of earth influencing the ancient history of mankind...

 

[Grim Jim]

In Wales?

[Eisegerwind]

Isn't science good, always digging away,literally, in this case. Trying to find out the truth,seperating the cranks from the geniouses, the liars from the fools from the truth seekers.Surprised we've not seem some insight from our religious correspondant?

 

[biffer]

On 27 April 2017 at 11:58 PM, DonnyTJS said:

The paper in Nature. (from the opening abstract). So I don't think there's evidence of sharp-edged tools, just percussive action on fresh bones and associated cobbles.

Yep, you're right.

[phart]

I saw this temperature map going back aeons you get this for Greenland. Basically Greenland is in an absolute cooler period than it had been for 10000 years. Obviously things are moving quicker but geological snap shots are interesting cause of the scale.

[DonnyTJS]

5 hours ago, biffer said:

Yep, you're right.

Not that it alters your point re: Orraloon's otters. It's hard to imagine a non-hominin creature, new-world primates for example, processing mastodon carcasses so we're still looking at genus Homo; assuming the cobble/bone association and dating are correct.

[Grim Jim]

Homo Sasquatchensus obviously    (Latin errors aside.)

[Orraloon]

11 hours ago, DonnyTJS said:

Not that it alters your point re: Orraloon's otters. It's hard to imagine a non-hominin creature, new-world primates for example, processing mastodon carcasses so we're still looking at genus Homo; assuming the cobble/bone association and dating are correct.

I'm sorry but I'm going to need a bit more evidence than "Donny finds it hard to imagine" before I completely abandon the Orraloon Oversized Otter Hypothesis.

[DonnyTJS]

1 hour ago, Orraloon said:

I'm sorry but I'm going to need a bit more evidence than "Donny finds it hard to imagine" before I completely abandon the Orraloon Oversized Otter Hypothesis.

Quite right too.

 

6 hours ago, Grim Jim said:

Homo Sasquatchensus obviously    (Latin errors aside.)

Actually, you might be on to something. Homo macropodia

Obviously, you might have priority, but I'd like to think the scientific community will fall in with the Graeco-Latinate beauty of mine. In fact, stuff it: Homo donnytjsii - no sniggering at the back.

[phart]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39922998

Started investigating the crater of the meteor that "wiped out the dinosaurs"

[Ally Bongo]

1 hour ago, phart said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39922998

Started investigating the crater of the meteor that "wiped out the dinosaurs"

Didnt notice that was on and only caught the last 10 minutes - will get it on catch up 

When you think about it, and compare how long we have been here, the dinosaurs were really sucessful.

Nature's most successful creation for 100 million years being the dominant species and only wiped out by pure chance

There must surely be somewhere out there in the universe where there are planets that have them 

[Ally Bongo]

Obviously they wouldnt neccesarily be like our dinosaurs who evolved to live on our planet

We would call them something else