In the research of archaeologists, the origin of human beings seems to never be concluded. From Peking Man to the early talented man , The history of human origin always advances in archaeological discoveries.
The fossil remains of a primate discovered at the beginning of the last century are regarded as a missing link on the human evolution chain. The origin of human beings is finally possible.
The fossil rich Messel pit
Fossil remains of primates were found in Messel fossil pit in Germany. In the mid-19th century, the Messel fossil pit was just a coal mining mine at that time. It was not until the fossils were mined in the early 20th century that people knew that this place was actually a fossil pit.
After that, fossils of ancient organisms appeared one after another in the Messel fossil pit. Research shows that most of these fossils came from the New Age 47 million years ago.
Bird fossil unearthed from Messel pit
1983 A fossil remains suspected to be primates unearthed from Messel fossil pit. At first, people did not care about this remains, but only regarded it as an ordinary fossil and displayed in a museum. and named Aida .
Aida's skeleton is preserved quite well, and only 5% of the skeletons in are lost in the years .
2006 Professor of the National Museum of History of Germany Jon Hrum noticed Aida's fossil and conducted two years of research with his team to finally mine the value of Aida.
Aida
Hrum's team believes that Aida is likely to be the common ancestor of apes, humans, and primates, , and is an important part of the evolutionary process of human beings.
History of human evolution
About 65 million years ago, a meteorite from the sky hit the earth. ruled the earth for 135 million years and disappeared. Only some mammals survived the disaster, and the animals began to evolve smaller.
About 50 million years ago, primate began to evolve in different directions, until 33 million years ago, apes finally differentiated among primates, and then chimpanzees appeared.
Dinosaurs became extinct in the long river of history
About 5 to 8 million years ago, humans differentiated among chimpanzees, and the human species appeared in , which is the earliest ancient ape man.
However, what has always troubled the archaeological community is that 50 million years ago, what exactly did species evolve into primates.
Aida's discovery answers to scientists' problems.
Aida and Primate
In order to further study Aida, archaeologists made more detailed splicing of Aida's bones , and restored Aida's complete bone state through synthesis technology on the computer.
Ada's three-dimensional state
Overall, Ada's bones are thinner than ordinary primates , but the texture distributed on the bones can be seen that Ada's muscles are still quite strong.
Aida's head has original mammal characteristics, is like a sheep's head .
From the bone structure of the mouth and the fossil teeth discovered , it can be inferred that the number of Aida's teeth during her lifetime was about 32, which just fits the characteristics of primates.
Archaeologists further analyzed the bones near the oral cavity, and found that Aida may also have deciduous teeth .
The status of the baby teeth
Considering the undeveloped bones, archaeologists infer that Ada is likely to have died at around 1 year old .
Where Ada was discovered, archaeologists also found food fossil that could not be completely digested in Ada's body. After analysis, Ada ate fruits and leaves during his lifetime, and his dietary structure was also consistent with early primates.
Aida's palm is surprisingly consistent with humans. On each phalanx, has traces of nails that appear in . The fingers have not evolved a tooth comb structure to comb hair. This means that Aida is closer to higher primates.
Ada's palm is very similar to humans
Because lower primates usually evolve the tooth comb structure in the teeth or fingers in order to comb their hair . tooth comb structure not only needs to comb their hair, but also use it to "contact feelings" to comb others.
Aida also reflected the characteristics of the early ape . In the study, it was found that Aida's toes and fingers were almost exactly the same as . The strong limbs allowed Aida to climb up a big tree easily.
The developed toes can also allow Aida to walk upright , but it does not last long. Aida mainly relies on her limbs to walk, and will only stand upright when she occasionally "leaves the air" in the wild.
Aida may be upright
Aida's Ankle bone also shows certain upright features. Ankle bone is an important structure to support an upright body and an important criterion for classification into higher primates.
Then, based on the technology of bone reduction, scientists believe that Aida was an early lemur , and lemurs are advanced primates. They are not only quite smart, but also have the closest characteristics to modern humans in all aspects.
, and Ada is standing between humans and contemporary lemur species, but is more biased towards lemur , so she is blamed for lemurs.
Lemur
So, can these characteristics show that Aida is the link in the history of human evolution, where is incomplete ?
Evolution of Aida and humans
Although Aida has certain similarities with today's humans, there are still huge differences. Some scientists believe that Aida is not the ancestor of humans.
It should be noted that most organisms in will change their body shape and appearance during the evolution process , and even their characteristics.
For example, the early elephants were not as large as they are today, but more like a pig. Elephants’ ancestors did not have ivory , and belonged to amphibians .
elephants' ancestors do not have ivory
elephants' ancestors are called 券电子 . They live in the forest, without horse hooves in the shape of a ya, but with a multi-toed structure and a height of only 30 cm. It is hard to believe that horses today evolved from the ancestor horses.
Darwin 's evolution theory proposes that species evolution has instability , and will evolve in a favorable direction, make subtle adjustments in the process, and it is possible to differentiate into a new species over a long period of time.
Therefore, cannot determine whether a species is its own ancestor, , just from its appearance, but also from the changes in the life habits, dietary structure and environmental changes of the ancestors.
From habits, find ancestors
About 50 million years ago, Messel Fossil Pit was still a crater . In the historical changes, volcanic activities have stabilized and finally turned into a water-storing lake. The vegetation around
is growing very lush with fertile volcanic ash and lake water. There are countless creatures living in the Messel fossil pit.
The fossils of various mammals discovered by archaeologists in the Messel Fossil Pit are the best proof.
Living in such an environment, Aida mainly feeds on fruits , and occasionally eats some meat. She is an early omnivorous animal .
Fruit is the main food source of Aida
With the changes in the environment, the earth has also entered the ice age, and the Messel fossil pit is no longer suitable for the survival of animals.
Archaeologists speculated that Aida had died before the ice age . During the process of drinking water around the lake, she accidentally fell into it and sank to the bottom of the water.
At this time, the ice age came, and Ada's body was sealed and entered into the soil layer of without being eroded by the outside world. After the ice age, the ice and snow melted, and Ada's body reacted chemically with the soil, and finally became a fossil. so that Ada's bones could be preserved so completely .
Earth ice age
Messel fossil pits were also unearthed several lemurs . Although they are the same species, their physical characteristics show differences , which is a powerful basis for proving species evolution.
Overall, it is a well-founded fact to regard Aida as the ancestor of mankind.
In the German magazine "Focus", German archaeologists publicly stated that "this species (Ada) is the ancestor of primates, and fills a missing link in the evolutionary process of human beings."
Since the ancestors of humans were lemurs of Aida, then what about the ancestors of lemurs ?
Who was the ancestor of the lemur?
my country's scientific research shows that tracing the earlier ancestors of human beings, we have to start with marine organisms . Human beings first experienced jawless fish species, and then fin . Later, under the influence of changes in the marine environment, fish landed on land, and became amphibians and mammals .
Of course, this is a very long process and takes hundreds of millions of years to change one's body shape characteristics and structural functions.
Scientists prove that fish are the ancestors of humans
The ancestors of humans miraculously gave birth to humans during a long journey! It makes people sigh at the wonder of species evolution.
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