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Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 3:55 pm
Please excuse me if I don't use the correct scientific language... I have a question about how the animal kingdom is spread out over the world. For example, you have bears in almost all the continents, felines, primates, fish in the lakes, or even snakes are to be found all over the world. But how come early hominids are seemingly only found around the northern africa/europe area? I apologize if any of this is incorrect. I just was thinking about it and was surprised that hominids haven't branched out in a more diverse way around the earth. It seems like other animals diversified and spread out but humans are concentrated in a smaller area. Hope the question makes sense, thanks!
PS completely unrelated... how do I use the quote function so that when I reply to someone I don't have to have their entire reply quoted, thanks
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RE: Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 4:03 pm
Seems less like a question about evolution and more one about migration and habitats.
Regarding quotes, if you reply using the "reply" button you can delete everything you don't want to have in your post. This works for when you only want to address certain parts of a quote - and I wish more people would do it. If you don't want to have a quote in there at all, use the "quick reply" box, like I'm doing.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 4:09 pm
Hi nicanica
(May 19, 2015 at 4:03 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Seems less like a question about evolution and more one about migration and habitats.
^^^this
Quote:Regarding quotes, if you reply using the "reply" button you can delete everything you don't want to have in your post. This works for when you only want to address certain parts of a quote - and I wish more people would do it. If you don't want to have a quote in there at all, use the "quick reply" box, like I'm doing.
^^^and this.
Sum ergo sum
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RE: Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 4:15 pm
(May 19, 2015 at 3:55 pm)nicanica123 Wrote: Please excuse me if I don't use the correct scientific language... I have a question about how the animal kingdom is spread out over the world. For example, you have bears in almost all the continents, felines, primates, fish in the lakes, or even snakes are to be found all over the world. But how come early hominids are seemingly only found around the northern africa/europe area? I apologize if any of this is incorrect. I just was thinking about it and was surprised that hominids haven't branched out in a more diverse way around the earth. It seems like other animals diversified and spread out but humans are concentrated in a smaller area. Hope the question makes sense, thanks!
PS completely unrelated... how do I use the quote function so that when I reply to someone I don't have to have their entire reply quoted, thanks
Many mammals, such as bears and cats, have been around for a much longer period of time than humans. Early humans were the new kids on the block and so their fossil remains are found in a relatively limited area. But you see this same pattern with the early fossils of many new species. They had to evolve somewhere.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
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RE: Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 4:22 pm
(This post was last modified: May 19, 2015 at 4:22 pm by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
Well, human are hominids, but I take your meaning. Part of the reason may be that hominids are a relatively recent group, compared to bears, fish, reptiles, and so forth (not to be pedantic about it, but humans are also primates). Other groups have had more time to spread and adapt to new environs. By the time human ancestors made it out of Africa and into Europe and parts of Asia, they had evolved into different species of human. Given the comparatively brief amount of time that Homo and are most recent ancestors have been here, I think we've done surprisingly well (as far as geographical range goes, I mean - we suck donkey balls in lots of other areas).
Boru
Yeah, what Oro said.
Hiya, mate. 
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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RE: Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 4:26 pm
(May 19, 2015 at 4:03 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Seems less like a question about evolution and more one about migration and habitats.
So this is why I did apologize in advance if I didn't use the correct scientific language
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RE: Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 4:27 pm
Hey there, Brian. How the hell are you?
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
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RE: Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 4:27 pm
And that's why I corrected your impression.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 4:30 pm
(May 19, 2015 at 4:15 pm)orogenicman Wrote: (May 19, 2015 at 3:55 pm)nicanica123 Wrote: Please excuse me if I don't use the correct scientific language... I have a question about how the animal kingdom is spread out over the world. For example, you have bears in almost all the continents, felines, primates, fish in the lakes, or even snakes are to be found all over the world. But how come early hominids are seemingly only found around the northern africa/europe area? I apologize if any of this is incorrect. I just was thinking about it and was surprised that hominids haven't branched out in a more diverse way around the earth. It seems like other animals diversified and spread out but humans are concentrated in a smaller area. Hope the question makes sense, thanks!
PS completely unrelated... how do I use the quote function so that when I reply to someone I don't have to have their entire reply quoted, thanks
Many mammals, such as bears and cats, have been around for a much longer period of time than humans. Early humans were the new kids on the block and so their fossil remains are found in a relatively limited area. But you see this same pattern with the early fossils of many new species. They had to evolve somewhere.
Exactly right. We have evidence of ancestors to bears going back 33+ million years. Early hominid 6-7 million.
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RE: Question about evolution
May 19, 2015 at 4:38 pm
I guess what I am not understanding, is how hominids have been around for millions of years and were always more intelligent but only managed to stay in a relatively smaller area. How did our primate ancestors make it to the americas 50 million years ago, bears about 38 mya, or the cougars 8 mya? But humans entered the americas about 13500 years ago. Shouldn't the trend be that even the earliest hominids would have migrated in similar patterns? Wouldn't logic suggest that we should find some kind of hominid in the americas? I hope every knows that I ask with the sincere idea of learning the answers to my question.
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