Tucker Carleson is clueless of the Saudi persecution of Christians

 

Tucker Carleson is clueless of the Saudi persecution of Christians.

"2.6 million-year-old" jaw from extinct 'Nutcracker Man' is found

 

Image courtesy of Alemseged Research Group

Joel Kontinen

According to evolution  fragments of a "2.6 million-year-old" fossil jaw discovered in northeastern Ethiopia are transforming the picture of early human evolution in Africa. The jaw, from a bipedal hominin — an extinct relative of humans.

"Until now, not a single fossil of Paranthropus had been identified" in the Afar region of Ethiopia, researchers wrote in a study published Wednesday (Jan. 21) in the journal Nature. "Hundreds of fossils representing over a dozen species" of hominins had been found in the Afar, study lead author Zeresenay Alemseged, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Chicago, said in a statement, "so the apparent absence of Paranthropus was conspicuous and puzzling to paleoanthropologists, many of whom had concluded the genus simply never ventured that far north."

The genus Paranthropus contains three species distantly related to humans: P. robustus, P. boisei and P. aethiopicus, collectively known as the "robusts." These species walked upright beginning around 2.7 million years ago, but they are unique in having massive teeth and jaws, which earned one fossil skull the nickname "Nutcracker Man." Paranthropus fossils were previously found in locations from southern Ethiopia to southern Africa and have been dated to between 2.8 million and 1.4 million years ago.

In January 2019, paleoanthropologists discovered a partial lower jaw, designated MLP-3000, at the site of Mille-Logya in the Afar region of northeast Ethiopia. Dated to about 2.6 million years ago, the jaw came from an older individual whose teeth and bone structure resembled those of members of the Paranthropus genus. While one species — P. aethiopicus — has been found in southern Ethiopia, the new MLP-3000 jaw was discovered much farther north than any previous fossil from this genus.

"The discovery of Paranthropus in the Afar provides critical new information," the researchers wrote, suggesting that "the genus could exploit diverse habitats and regions from north Ethiopia to South Africa as Australopithecus and Homo did." This means that Paranthropus likely had a much more flexible diet than the "Nutcracker Man" moniker suggests, enabling these hominins to disperse and adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions.

The newfound Paranthropus fossil at Mille-Logya adds a third genus to the variety of hominins present in the Afar region between 2.8 million and 2.5 million years ago, including Australopithecus and early Homo. It is not yet clear, though, whether the species would have encountered one another directly.

"Discoveries like this really trigger interesting questions in terms of reviewing, revising, and then coming up with new hypotheses as to what the key differences were between the main hominin groups," Alemseged said.

Carol Ward, a biological anthropologist at the of  University of Missouri who was not involved in the study, wrote in an accompanying perspective that, given the diversity of hominin species present, "the revelation that Paranthropus inhabited the Afar between 3 million and 2.4 million years ago is particularly exciting."

According to evolution, although all humans on the planet today are one species, hominin diversity lasted millions of years, until our extinct cousins the Neanderthals and Denisovans disappeared more than 30,000 years ago, Ward noted.

Nutcracker man is not related to humans. The dating of the fossil is off by hundreds of millions of years.

Source:

Kristina Killgrove 2026 2.6 million-year-old jaw from extinct 'Nutcracker Man' is found where we didn't expect it | Live Science 21 January

Stick shaped by ancient humans is the oldest known wooden tool

 

Artist’s reconstruction of a Palaeolithic woman making a digging stick from an alder tree trunk. Image courtesy of G. Prieto; K. Harvati

Joel Kontinen

The oldest known wooden tools have been found in an opencast mine in Greece. They are 430,000 years old and were made by an unidentified species of ancient human – perhaps the ancestors of Neanderthals.

But the Neanderthals were the descendants of Adam and Eve, there is something wrong about the date of 430 000 years.

Prehistoric wooden artefacts are “very scarce”, says archaeologist Dirk Leder at the Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage in Hannover, Germany, who wasn’t involved in the study. “Every single find is welcome.”

Source:

Michael Marshall 2026 Stick shaped by ancient humans is the oldest known wooden tool | New Scientist 26 January

Kurds under attack

 

The Kurdis defeated the ISIS will help the of the United States. But now they are persecuted by Syrians president.

Khamenei Hiding in a Bunker, Bomb Shelters Open in Israel. Is War Coming?

 

Why is Khamenei hiding in a bunker? The Americans have sent a flotilla of warships to deal with the Iranian  issue. Why are the Europeans silent about the conflict in Iran?

Ape-like hominin Paranthropus was more adaptable than we thought

 

Illustration of Paranthropus hominins, which lived between 2.7 and 1.4 million years ago. Image courtesy of John Bavaro Fine Art/Science Photo Library

Joel Kontinen

A fossil discovery in northern Ethiopia expands the known range of Paranthropus, a genus of strong-jawed hominins that lived around 2 million years ago, and suggests they lived in a range of habitats.

For the first time, the remains of ancient hominins called Paranthropus have been found in the remote Afar region of Ethiopia. The discovery dramatically expands the area over which Paranthropus roamed, and suggests they lived in a wide range of ecosystems.

Paranthropus remains are known from eastern and southern Africa, between 2.7 and 1.4 million years ago. They are thought to be closely related to Homo, the group that includes modern humans and Neanderthals. They may have evolved from earlier hominins called Australopithecus.

That is the evolutionary tale of the fossil. We believe that it was crated that way. And the tale of millions of years is also fictional.

 Source:

Michael Marshall 2026 Ape-like hominin Paranthropus was more adaptable than we thought | New Scientist 21 January

Our earliest vertebrate ancestors may have had four eyes

 

Illustration of Haikouichthys, a fish from the Cambrian period, with a second pair of eyes suggested by fossil evidence. Image courtesy of Xiangtong Lei, Sihang Zhang

Joel Kontinen

Extraordinary fossils of 518-million-year-old jawless fish, among the earliest known vertebrates, appear to show that these animals had two pairs of eyes

Over half a billion years ago, the world’s oldest known vertebrates seem to have sported an extra set of eyes – and humans may still carry a remnant of this ancient evolutionary innovation.

But this isn’t a story of evolutionary innovation. It is a story of Darwinian speculation. And fossils tell the story that evolutionists tend to like.

Extraordinary fossils of two species of jawless fish called myllokunmingids were found by Peiyun Cong at Yunnan University in China, and his colleagues between 2019 and 2024, on the banks of Dianchi Lake in south-west China.

Source: 

James Woodford 2026 Our earliest vertebrate ancestors may have had four eyes | New Scientist 21 January