NYT: Some See Roots of (early human) Compassion in Toothless Fossil Skull

[DeepModem Mom]

Some See Roots of Compassion in a Toothless Fossil Skull
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Published: April 6, 2005


The toothless skull of an early human ancestor, discovered in the Republic of Georgia, may attest to evolution's oldest known example of some kind of compassion for the elderly and handicapped in society, scientists are reporting today.

Other experts agreed that the discovery was significant, but cautioned that it might be a stretch to interpret the fossil as evidence of compassion.

The well-preserved skull belonged to a male Homo erectus about 40 years old. All his teeth, except the left canine, were missing. The empty tooth sockets had been filled in by a regrowth of bone, the scientists said, indicating that the man had been toothless for at least two years before he died at what was then an old age. (The discoverers call him the "old man.")....(H)ow could the man have survived that long, unable to chew the food of a mainly meat-eating society?

In interviews and the current issue of National Geographic, the paleoanthropologists said caring companions might have helped the toothless man in finding soft plant food and hammering raw meat with stone tools so he could "gum" his dinner. If so, they said, this was evidence of a kind of compassion that had been absent in the ancestral fossil record before the Neanderthals 60,000 years ago.

In the survival of the old man, Dr. David Lordkinidze said in National Geographic, "We're looking at perhaps the first sign of truly human behavior in one of our ancestors."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/science/06cnd-teeth.html?ex=1113451200&en=e24619d51bf063af&ei=5070

[onehandle]

1. 40 is indeed pretty old for that phase of humanity.

He must have been pretty healthy otherwise to outrun the raptors for that long.

[Goldeneye]

2. How is this news? Stupid new york times.

Its in my anthropology book which was printed last year. It is interesting though. They can figure things out with some of the craziest little pieces of bone.

[Warpy]

3. "mainly meat eating???"

He was likely in a hunter/gatherer society. Fully 90% of his calories would have been supplied by plant foodstuffs gathered by women.

However, yes, they would have wanted to keep their father, husband, brother, or uncle alive.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. They apparently think the diet in his climate was meat --

"Dr. G. Philip Rightmire of Binghamton University in upstate New York, a team member who specializes in Homo erectus research, said in an interview that if the toothless individual had lived in the warmer climate of Africa, with a year-round abundance of plants and fruits, his chances of surviving unaided would have been better. But in Georgia, where winters are cold and bare of vegetation, human ancestors presumably relied mostly on a diet of meat."

[rzemanfl]

4. Maybe he was on a feeding tube. n/t

[skylarmae]

6. LMAO!

[rzemanfl]

18. What's so funny about that? It coulda happened. Them cave

people was smart. You try to make a knife out of a rock with nuthin but other rocks. I'm bettin they had one of those "cultures of life" and a real good leader like GW who told them that they had to attack other cave mens cuz of their massive weapons and cuz they tried to kill his daddy. I bet this guy got all his teeth knocked out in a battle and they snuck him back at night and hid him away and fed him through a tube so they wouldn't have to say he was dead.
Prob'ly then some liberal judge cave man made them pull the tube out because the guy was so pitiful.

So there. You lefties laugh at the stupidiest shit.

[DeepModem Mom]

23. Good one! nt

[Anakin Skywalker]

9. LOL! Drink on Keyboard!

:)

[rzemanfl]

19. See 18 above, funnybones. n/t

[montana_hazeleyes]

11. LOL

LOL:rofl:

[rzemanfl]

20. Montana Wildhack is more like it. See 18 above. If you don't

get this, read or watch "Slaughterhouse Five."

[Jilly Beans]

7. Lots of evidence of Homo erectus compassion.

Healed bones, evidence of diseased bones, severely injured persons who lived long past their injuries. The only way they could have lived is through being fed by others.

Also, flower pollen is found in HE burials. They were human, and I don't see how anyone can deny evolution after learning all that has been discovered about them.

[prodigal_green]

8. hammer your own damn food

you toothless old man! (Mrs. Toothless, after a hard day dragging the kids around).

Actually, why do they assume somebody else did that for him? It didn't say he was armless did it?

[DeepModem Mom]

10. Well, you have a point there, pg! nt

[KittyWampus]

12. That's What I Was Wondering. Why Couldn't Toothless Hunt & Gather?

????

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Looked again, and the article addressed the question of helping himself --

"The old man, Dr. Rightmire said, might have been able to take care of himself by cracking bones for the marrow and even softening pieces of meat with stone hammers. But the almost total loss of teeth, signifying either disease or advanced age or both, suggested that he might have needed help with processing food, especially in the colder months."

[prodigal_green]

16. Archaelogists Find Fossil of World's Earliest Liberals!

Good thing chimpy wasn't around then, he would've pulled the poor guy's last tooth and given it to someone with...uh...too many teeth.

[DeepModem Mom]

17. So true!

:D

[PeaceProgProsp]

14. Hmm. Survival of the Cooperative. Survival of the Compassionate.

That's going to fuck up a lot of conservative theories about how the world should work.

[Sequoia]

15. But in the Bible (Genesis) people lived way beyond 150 years old

Explain that one.

[rzemanfl]

21. In fairy tales people fly too. n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

25. Well I'm no expert, but I suspect

an arcane method of determining the length of a year is to blame.

[varun]

22. That society had Democrat values

couldnt have been a mean Republican society.

[Dogmudgeon]

24. Other people could chew for him

Premasticating food isn't exactly a rare behavior in the Human family.

If his group of Erects used fire to cook food, he could have easily eaten meat without having chewed it; in fact, it's easier to eat and digest cooked meat than most raw vegetables and fruits. The determining factor would have been the preparation.

--p!