Before about 1970 all the ancestor fossils of hominins could fit into cardboard box, but since thousands of fossils have been discovered all over Africa and Asia that have established a relatively good consistent hominin evolution dating bact to about 4.4 million years ag with the australpithecines Lucy (3.2 million years) and her distant cousin Ardi.' {4.4 million years ago). What we are also finding is a diversity of cousins at the various stages of hominin evolution that in and of themselves went extinct and and not a direct ancestor to humans like Australpithecus Robustus and A. boisei. One problem is the definition of what is a species making it difficult to define specific ancestrial lineages in hominins and life in general. Recent finds in hominin evolution and evolution in general is that evolution takes place in a diversity of what was previously called species, subspecies and related varieties
Older hominin primate ancestors and there cousins have less fossil evidence, and search for a direct ancestor is more illusive. The claims of direct hominin ancestry is more difficult and sometimes controversial like the Sahelanthropus tchadensis (6.8 to 7.2 million years ago). The following articles illustrate the controversy of claiming direct hominin ancestral lineages of hominins. My view is insufficient information to draw any conclusions as to direct hominin ancestry older than Lucy and Ardi. I also find reason to doubt scientific conclusions that too narrowly define species to reach their conclusions.
This article makes the claim of direct hominin ancestry:
Older hominin primate ancestors and there cousins have less fossil evidence, and search for a direct ancestor is more illusive. The claims of direct hominin ancestry is more difficult and sometimes controversial like the Sahelanthropus tchadensis (6.8 to 7.2 million years ago). The following articles illustrate the controversy of claiming direct hominin ancestral lineages of hominins. My view is insufficient information to draw any conclusions as to direct hominin ancestry older than Lucy and Ardi. I also find reason to doubt scientific conclusions that too narrowly define species to reach their conclusions.
This article makes the claim of direct hominin ancestry:
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