The Black Vault

Does Science ever confuse you?

It does me. In 2009 I remember reading:

"Neanderthals 'distinct from us'
By James Morgan
Science reporter, BBC News, Chicago

The DNA will tease out the differences between Neanderthals (l) and us (r)
Scientists studying the DNA of Neanderthals say they can find no evidence that this ancient species ever interbred with modern humans.

But our evolutionary cousins may well have been able to speak as well as us, said Prof Svante Paabo from Germany's Max Planck Institute."
see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7886477.stm

THEN...just a year later I am reading:

"Neanderthal DNA Found In Human DNA: Human Ancestors Mated With Extinct Species, Researchers Say."
see
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/0 ... 67177.html

And I'm, like, make up your MIND! It's Grandparents Day and I gotta pick out a Greeting Card.

And NOW comes "DNA identifies new ancient human dubbed 'X-woman'
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

The finger bone was unearthed in 2008 at Denisova Cave
Scientists have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human through analysis of DNA from a finger bone unearthed in a Siberian cave."

A PREVIOUSLY unknown THIRD ancestor NOT Homo-sapiens, NOT Cro-Mag, NOT Neanderthal????

Good Grief? Could she be teh Sasquatch's Grandma?

(Always assuming there ARE Sasquatches, of course.)

But see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8583254.stm

And what about Australopithecus sediba ? Australopithecus, you'll remember, was discovered in EAST Africa which is why they called it "Southern Ape".

But what about Australopithecus Sediba? Australopithecus sediba is a Southern Ape from SOUTH Africa :"Researchers tell the journal Science that the creatures fill an important gap between older hominids and the group of more modern species known as Homo, which includes our own kind. "

(At this point, Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, et al would like it known that there ain't no "Homo" in THEIR family trees.)


"The team has assigned the name Australopithecus sediba to their finds.

"It's at the point where we transition from an ape that walks on two legs to, effectively, us," lead scientist Professor Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand told BBC News.

"I think that probably everyone is aware that this period of time - that period between 1.8 and just over two million years [ago] - is one of the most poorly represented in the entire early hominid fossil record. You're talking about a very small, very fragmentary record," he explained.

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8609192.stm

But here's the question I want answered.
Was this show I used to watch a DOCUMENTARY show or NOT??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PPf3aaZmUw

It's not the science that confuses me, it's the scientists.