Fossil skull spurs identity dispute. (Anthropology).A nearly 7-million-year-old skull recently described as the earliest known member of the human evolutionary family instead represents an ancient ape, say anthropologist Milford H. Wolpoff Milford H. Wolpoff (born 1942 to Ruth (Silver) and Ben Wolpoff, Chicago) is a paleoanthropologist, and since 1977, a professor of anthropology and adjunct associate research scientist, Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. of the University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. in Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, city (1990 pop. 109,592), seat of Washtenaw co., S Mich., on the Huron River; inc. 1851. It is a research and educational center, with a large number of government and industrial research and development firms, many in high-technology fields such as and his colleagues. The creature, Sahelanthropus tchadensis (SN: 7/13/02, p. 19), has more in common with fossil and modern apes than with fossil ancestors of humans, the researchers argue in the Oct. 10 Nature. The specimen's teeth resemble those of females in several fossil-ape lineages, they contend. As in gorillas today, the heavy brow ridge of Sahelanthropus worked with other skull elements to anchor powerful chewing muscles. Also, the position of the spinal cord spinal cord, the part of the nervous system occupying the hollow interior (vertebral canal) of the series of vertebrae that form the spinal column, technically known as the vertebral column. opening in the skull's base indicates that this individual didn't regularly hold its head upright or walk on two legs, in the scientists' view. Two of Wolpoff's coauthors regard their own 6-million-year-old fossil discovery as the earliest human ancestor (SN: 7/14/01, p. 20). The issue is hardly settled. In a response in the same issue of Nature, Sahelanthropus discoverer Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers The University of Poitiers (French: Université de Poitiers) is a university located in Poitiers, France. History Founded in 1431 by Pope Eugene IV and chartered by King Charles VII, the University of Poitiers was originally composed of five faculties: theology, in France says that, Wolpoff's group improperly aligned many of the skull's features and overlooked dental similarities to later fossil ancestors of humans. |
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