World's Oldest Human Footprints 49
Gorbie writes "An article on Yahoo tells about the discovery of 350,000 year old human footprints found in Italy."
WARNING TO ALL PERSONNEL: Firings will continue until morale improves.
Well (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
You think he is nuts (Score:1)
At least these people belive the earth is round.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Well (Score:1)
This is a series of science paradox which show one scientific estimation is in contradiction with another. They may look very funny at the first glance, but they actually help us reconsider the validity of commonly adopted scientific assumptions.
I can't really comment on the earth rotation part as I'm not expert in this field, but his comment on electromagnetic decay is already answered by recent(not re
In related news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In related news... (Score:1)
and beside the footprints... (Score:4, Funny)
"Charles Heston"
and two handprints.
Scientists are trying to decode this strange oddity.
Charles Heston? (Score:2)
Actually ... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Actually ... (Score:2)
Re:Actually ... (Score:4, Informative)
It is also interesting to note that these footprints indicate that they were made by beings which were approximately 4.5ft (1.5m) tall, though H. heidelbergensis remains suggest that adults of the species may have been as tall as 6 feet (1.9m). Thus, as the article suggests, these footprints may have been made by children- or they made be from a completely different hominid species.
Re:Actually ... (Score:1)
There are some paleoanthropologists, however, who think that H. heidelbergensis (I just love that name)
Do you think they were great swordfighters? I mean, if they all went to Heidelberg...
For a picture... (Score:5, Funny)
see here [gnome.org].
Those kids... (Score:3, Funny)
This is really... (Score:3, Funny)
Who can argue with that?
prehuman? (Score:2)
Re:prehuman? (Score:4, Informative)
From what I have read... (Score:2)
Re:prehuman? (Score:2)
If you've never heard of him (and most people haven't) Tom Brown Jr [trackerschool.com], is one of the foremost experts on the lost art of tracking. He first started to learn the art as a young boy from his best friend's grandfather, who was a displaced Apache scout.
Today, he's a world re
Proof positive (Score:1)
This always happens. (Score:2, Funny)
yo.
Re:This always happens. (Score:1)
Too bad Steve's been debunked (Score:2, Informative)
Re:How old are they? (Score:2, Insightful)
1) whole rock dating is, as it sounds, dating a rock without regard to the specific mineral phases within it. this is a major point because different minerals have different diffusivities (and therefore closure temperatures) with respect to loss of radiogenic 40Ar.
2) K-Ar dating, while useful, gives results with large uncertainties. for example, a 10 million year old K-Ar date typically has uncertainties o
Re:How old are they? (Score:1)
If you run a double-blind test in medicine and prove something is completely ineffective, the medication never sees the market (well, that's how it's supposed to work; thalidomide and other examples indicate that even that p
Re:How old are they? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How old are they? (Score:1)
does not agree with sources that believe in K-Ar dating. For example, from here [palomar.edu] you see
Re:How old are they? (Score:2)
Re:How old are they? (Score:1)
Re:How old are they? (Score:1)
The problem here is simple. If you believe that the Earth is only 5000 or so years old, then any test that relies on the rocks in question being an order of magnitude or two older is invalid. Such people have no concept of 'geological time', since they cannot understand that the beginning of history does not mean the beginnig of time.
This argument is futile -- no matter how scientific creationists try to sound, their world view is so dramatically different from the agnostic scientific model that a conce
Re:How old are they? (Score:2)
I think *YOU* have missed the key point in this case, and that is that radiometric dating does not work for very young rocks. I believe the parent post's point 3 accounts for the problem that you seem to have. I'll even cut and paste it so you can read it again:
"3) THE SAMPLES ARE ONLY 10 YEARS OLD!!!! that is (by a long shot) not enough time to accumulate radiogenic 40Ar in the sample. the half-life of 40K is just too damn long and given the state of t
Re:How old are they? (Score:1)
The point being that if you submit using double-blind techniques both known and unknown age rocks, you will get results which invalidate the radiometric
Re:How old are they? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How old are they? (Score:2)
Re:How old are they? (Score:1)
Re:How old are they? (Score:2)
Interestingly three of Dalrymple's samples have lower levels of Ar40 relative to Ar36 than expected producing dates that are too young. You (our more likely your source--whichever) completely failed to mention this. Indeed a major point of the article was to investigate the range of Ar40/Ar36 ratios and to give us an idea of the error bars that a K-Ar date may give us. This renders your "point" about there being as muc
Re:How old are they? (Score:1)
The idea that radiometric dating methods are unrealiable is not limited to creationists, there are evolutionists that have real problems with it as well. For example, William D. Stansfield, Science of Evolution (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1977), p.84:
Re:How old are they? (Score:2)
Re:How old are they? (Score:2)
I dated a rock once. It was a pet rock. It raised many issues.
The worst thing was the rock never paid for itself in restaurants.
Next time I'm going to try computer dating.
graspee
Oldest human footprint? (Score:1)
World's Oldest Human Footprints
From the article:
Other scientists said that while the prints appear well-preserved, they add little to knowledge about human evolution, since footprints of far older human ancestors have been found.
Seems like a contradiction to me.
Re:Oldest human footprint? (Score:2)
World's Oldest Human Footprints
Other scientists said that while the prints appear well-preserved, they add little to knowledge about human evolution, since footprints of far older human ancestors have been found.