New species in human lineage is found in a south African cav

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New species in human lineage is found in a south African cav

Postby Ernie Coffman » Sep 10, 2015 10:31 am

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/new ... li=AAa0dzB

This link will take you to a story that first came about because of spelunkers two years ago. Quite interesting with an international team of scientists following through with this find that dates way back, even though they're saying the cave is probably only 3-million years old--give or take a few years, right? :rofl:
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More news on South African cave and what to expect

Postby Ernie Coffman » Sep 10, 2015 8:46 pm

Sixty applicants signed up to be selected for this excursion to the South African cave and here are some pictures of what they found...

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... in/404362/ :clap:
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Re: New species in human lineage is found in a south African

Postby captnemo » Sep 11, 2015 3:37 pm

Here's a more direct source of info from S.A.
http://ewn.co.za/Features/Naledi
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Re: New species in human lineage is found in a south African

Postby BrianFrank » Sep 11, 2015 7:10 pm

Out of sixty applicants he chose 6 petite women. Genius :bananawhip: Just saying.

Article hinted that there is some hesitancy to carbon date the bones. Wonder why? :shrug:
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New species in human lineage is found in a south African cav

Postby Ernie Coffman » Sep 11, 2015 8:47 pm

Copied this from Wikipedia, so...maybe this is an answer for you:

Bone[edit]
Unburnt bone was once thought to be a poor candidate for radiocarbon dating,[4] but is now possible to test it accurately. The constituents of bone include proteins, which contain carbon; bone's structural strength comes from calcium hydroxyapatite, which is easily contaminated with carbonates from ground water. Removing the carbonates also destroys the calcium hydroxyapatite, and so it is usual to date bone using the remaining protein fraction after washing away the calcium hydroxyapatite and contaminating carbonates. This protein component is called collagen. Collagen is sometimes degraded, in which case it may be necessary to separate the proteins into individual amino acids and measure their respective ratios and 14
C activity. It is possible to detect if there has been any degradation of the sample by comparing the relative volume of each amino acid with the known profile for bone. If so, separating the amino acids may be necessary to allow independent testing of each one—agreement between the results of several different amino acids indicates that the dating is reliable. Hydroxyproline, one of the constituent amino acids in bone, was once thought to be a reliable indicator as it was not known to occur except in bone, but it has since been detected in groundwater.[2]

For burnt bone, testability depends on the conditions under which the bone was burnt. The proteins in burnt bone are usually destroyed, which means that after acid treatment, nothing testable will be left of the bone. Degradation of the protein fraction can also occur in hot, arid conditions, without actual burning; then the degraded components can be washed away by groundwater. However, if the bone was heated under reducing conditions, it (and associated organic matter) may have been carbonized. In this case the sample is often usable.[2]

Ernie :shrug:
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Another follow-up news article on New species in Africa

Postby Ernie Coffman » Sep 11, 2015 8:59 pm

This is a great article to follow-up on the original one, telling us about the women that were brought into this great find:

http://themediaonline.co.za/2015/09/a-b ... xcavation/ :clap:

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