New “Missing Link” Discovered

I mentioned recently, when talking about the X-Woman / Denisova homin finds that, “Speculations and discoveries will continue to change the landscape of human evolution.”

The Denisova discovery certainly got a lot of play, some of it quite intriguing and unconsciously humorous. One German news blog used Dick Klyver’s Homo floresiensis image from the cover of one of my books, apparently, via this blog. They also seemed to have mixed up material from my X-Woman blog, and called anthropologist John Hawks, “a noted cryptozoologist.” LOL.

Humans (Homo sapiens), Neandertals (Homo neanderthalensis), hobbits (Homo floresiensis), and the Denisova homins shared terra firma, in the recent episode. Now, today, word has leaked out of a new member of the clan, supposedly leading in our direction, which may give us further insights into this crowded Earth.

Mrs. Ples’ bust, meticulously reconstructed, with the fossilized skull of an Australopithecus afarensis, excavated in 1947 at Sterkfontein, today known as the “Cradle of Humankind.” Photo: Dominique Gommery.

An almost complete skeleton of a youngster has been was found in the cave systems in the Sterkfontein region of South Africa, near Johannesburg, an area known for its remarkable past finds. The new fossil species is scheduled to be announced next Thursday, and shall be identified as a new species that is allegedly between Australopithecus and Homo habilis. Can you blame the media for, once again, using the old standby, “missing link“? (Of course, news of a new “living fossil” would have been even more remarkable!)

There is no mistake in your uploading of the above image; the missing species is suppose to be that way. At least, for now.

Media outlets appear to be jumping an embargo, and pre-releasing the word of the upcoming Malapa hominin announcement. For example, see the Thaiindian news service, which identifies this as a child’s skeleton, and the London Telegraph’s “Missing link between man and apes found.”

More formal information will be forthcoming, but here are citations that appear to relate to the forthcoming papers on this discovery:

deRuiter D.J., Churchill S.E., Berger L.R., Carlson K.J., Kibii J., Dirks, P.H,G.M. A new species of early hominin from South Africa. Annual Meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society, St Louis, USA April 13-14, 2010.

In another recent book I just finished (True Giants, Anomalist Books, 2010), I consider the notion that the floodgates are also going to open to a new era of exciting fossil hominoids (as opposed to only hominids) discoveries or discovery announcements. Will new Gigantopithecus finds be too far in the future from Asian scientists?

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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