{"id":3924032,"date":"2026-02-20T09:03:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/human-origins-story-remains-incomplete-with-missing-ancestors\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:03:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:03:01","slug":"human-origins-story-remains-incomplete-with-missing-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/human-origins-story-remains-incomplete-with-missing-ancestors\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Origins Story Remains Incomplete with Missing Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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YouTube Video Here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9VFxefR23EY?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1<\/a><\/p>\n

Human origins remain unclear given studies of known fossils, concludes a new\u00a0Science\u00a0<\/em>review.<\/a>\u00a0Today, our last common ancestor with the apes remains unknown as debate rages on for paleoanthropologists.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe evolutionary history of apes and humans is largely incomplete,\u201d states the review.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The study\u2019s lead author,\u00a0Sergio Alm\u00e9cija,\u00a0<\/a>a senior research scientist in the American Museum of Natural History\u2019s Division of Anthropology, says there\u2019s no agreement.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen you look at the narrative for hominin origins, it\u2019s just a big mess\u2014there\u2019s no consensus whatsoever,\u201d said Alm\u00e9cija. \u201cPeople are working under completely different paradigms, and that\u2019s something that I don\u2019t see happening in other fields of science.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Recommended:\u00a0Meet Australopithecus anamensis, one of humankind\u2019s oldest ancestors<\/a><\/p>\n

The Core of the Human Origins Problem<\/h2>\n

Between about 9.3 million and 6.5 million years ago, it is believed humans diverged from the chimpanzee lineage. Today, chimpanzees and bonobos are our closest living relatives, sharing\u00a099% of our DNA. <\/a>That\u2019s absolutely fact, although humans still seem intent to destroy our close relative\u2019s natural environments.<\/p>\n

Some scientists think there is a missing chimp-like knuckle-walking ancestor that led to hominins. Others suspect it\u2019s more likely an ancestor evolved from a species resembling Miocene apes.<\/p>\n

Top-Down versus Bottom-Up\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Taking a \u201ctop-down\u201d approach, some scientists study chimpanzees to attempt to reconstruct hominin origins. Others use a \u201cbottom-up\u201d approach, focusing on the fossil record of mostly extinct apes. Now, reconciling these two approaches \u201cremains at the core of the human origins problem,\u201d the\u00a0study states.<\/a><\/p>\n

After the review, the scientists believe it\u2019s \u201clikely that the last shared ape ancestor had its own set of traits, different from those of modern humans and modern apes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Therefore, an essential part of the picture remains missing.<\/p>\n

Missing Part of the Picture<\/h2>\n

Study co-author Ashley Hammond says studying living apes isn\u2019t likely to resolve the questions of human origins.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLiving ape species are specialized species, relicts of a much larger group of now extinct apes. When we consider all evidence\u2014that is, both living and fossil apes and hominins\u2014it is clear that a human evolutionary story based on the few ape species currently alive is missing much of the bigger picture,\u201d said Hammond.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In order to unite disparate theories, the study suggests including everything known about hominins, living apes, and Miocene apes in the equation. Importantly, it\u2019s necessary to look at everything to complete the picture.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEarly hominins likely originated in Africa from a Miocene LCA that does not match any living ape (e.g., it might not have been adapted specifically for suspension or knuckle-walking). Despite phylogenetic uncertainties, fossil apes remain essential to reconstruct the \u2018starting point\u2019 from which humans and chimpanzees evolved,\u201d states the study.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Darwin\u2019s Theory 150 Years Later<\/h2>\n

Some 150 years ago, Darwin introduced \u201cIn The Descent of Man,\u201d suggesting our origins came from an unknown ancestor in Africa. Today, Darwin\u2019s speculation has been backed up with many discoveries of extinct\u00a0hominin fossils,\u00a0<\/a>but so far, none have proven to be the indisputable missing link.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Darwin\u2019s evolution studies once led to him being dubbed \u201cthe most dangerous man in England,\u201d for upsetting religious ideas. However, he almost became religious clergy himself and at one time believed in the \u201cstrict and literal truth of every word in the Bible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, an 1831 trip on the HMS Beagle to South America changed his life. After he arrived at the Galapagos, his studies of flora and fauna eventually led to the theory of evolution by natural selection. He presented overwhelming evidence in 1859 in The Origin of Species,<\/em> criticized by clergy and even some of his own family but supported by important scientists.<\/p>\n

Gradually, Darwin\u2019s theory became widely accepted.<\/p>\n

See more from\u00a0Biographics<\/em><\/p>\n

You might like:\u00a0Scientists genetically link orangutans to giant ape thought to be Bigfoot<\/a><\/p>\n

Zecharia Sitchin and the Missing Link<\/h2>\n

Like Darwin, author\u00a0Zecharia Sitchin<\/a>\u00a0is highly controversial but remains so after his death. Unlike Darwin, Stichin focused on translations of ancient Sumerian and Akkadian clay tablets, with no scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

In seven books known as\u00a0The Earth Chronicles,\u00a0<\/em>Sitchin suggested a radical human origins story. Humans were genetically engineered by extraterrestrials called the Anunnaki, who arrived on Earth 450,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAccording to Sitchin, an advanced race of human-like extraterrestrials called the Anunnaki live on Nibiru and are the missing link in Homo sapiens evolution,\u201d writes a critical review by\u00a0Ohio State University.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Like today\u2019s scientists, Sitchin believed human origins\u00a0began in Africa,<\/a>\u00a0where the Anunnaki mined gold. Once they arrived, they genetically altered early humans, creating a suitable slave race for mining operations.<\/p>\n

As outrageous as the ideas sound, it\u2019s one idea why the missing link in human evolution remains as of yet undiscovered. If true, our ancestors got a jumpstart, a boost in intelligence by rather unnatural ET selection. However, it would not disprove Darwinian evolution but suggest that human intelligence got an evolutionary boost.<\/p>\n

Before his death in 2010, Sitchin urged scientific\u00a0DNA testing<\/a>\u00a0to confirm if his ideas could be true. He was willing to stake his life\u2019s work to determine if extraterrestrials had indeed once lived among humans. However, the testing, thus far, has either not been done or has not been reported. Nevertheless, Sitchin\u2019s work remains fascinating to ancient astronaut theorists.<\/p>\n

Until we conclusively discover a missing link, human origins will remain a fascinating mystery. For some, religion and spirituality fill in the gaps, for others, science is the only acceptable method. Perhaps, as the scientists in the recent study believe, solving the mystery will require being open to everything in the picture.<\/p>\n

To see more by this author follow The Gamut.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Featured image: Image by\u00a0<\/em>jplenio<\/a>\u00a0via\u00a0Pixabay,<\/a>\u00a0Pixabay License<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Go to Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

YouTube Video Here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9VFxefR23EY?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1<\/p>\n

Human origins remain unclear given studies of known fossils, concludes a new Science review. Today, our last common ancestor with the apes remains unknown as debate rages on for paleoanthropologists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evolutionary history of apes and humans is largely incomplete,\u201d states the review.<\/p>\n

The study\u2019s lead author, Sergio Alm\u00e9cija, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3924032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-code","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3924032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3924032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3924032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikedyess.info\/para\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3924032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}