MNI of fossil species
Dunk
(added to header) can help with this.
Dunk
====
On Fri, 19 Jul 2002 03:49:21 +0000 (UTC), Ben Potter
<bpo...@pobox.alaska.net> wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>After dealing with a number of creationist who use the "Big Daddy" tract
>approach to discredit the evidence of hominid evolution, I decided to
>compile a database of hominid specimens, focusing on getting a MNI
>(minimum number of individuals) and crania for each species. The list is
>far from complete, but I thought if some on this list might want numbers
>so far.
>
>Okay,
>
>Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba (5.8-5.2 mya) (5 sites, 5 individuals, 0
>crania)
>Ardipithecus ramidus ramidus (4.4 mya) (2 sites, >50 individuals, 0
>crania)
>Australopithecus afarensis (4.2-2.96 mya) (11 sites, ~120 individuals,
>>8 crania)
>Australopithecus africanus (2.9-2.4 mya) (7 sites, ~130 individuals, 25
>crania)
>Australopithecus anamensis (4.17-3.9 mya) (2 sites, 10 individuals, 0
>crania)
>Australopithecus bahrelghazali (3.5-3.0 mya) (1 site, 1 individual, 0
>crania)
>Australopithecus garhi (2.5 mya, 3 sites, 4 individuals, 1 cranium)
>Homo antecessor (800 kya, 1 site, >5 individuals, 0? crania)
>Homo erectus/ergaster (1.9-0.4 mya, >34 sites, >210 individuals, >62
>crania)
>Homo habilis (2.3-1.6 mya, 7 sites, 25 individuals, 11 crania)
>Homo heidelbergensis (700-100 kya, 26 sites, 60 individuals, 20 crania)
>Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (250-25 kya, >31 sites, >77 individuals,
>>27 crania
>Homo sapiens sapiens, >10 kya only (130 kya to recent, >75 sites, >154
>individuals, numerous crania)
>Homo rudolfensis (1.9 mya, 2 sites, 5 individuals, 3 crania)
>Kenyanthropus platyops (3.3 mya, 1 site, 3 individuals, 1 crania)
>Orrorin tugenensis (6.3-5.6 mya) (4 sites, 5 individuals, 0 crania)
>Paranthropus aethiopicus (2.7-1.9 mya, 2 sites, 8 individuals, 2 crania)
>
>Paranthropus boisei (2.5-1.4 mya, 9 sites, 43 individuals, 13 crania)
>Paranthropus robustus (2.0-1.5 mya, 3 sites, 28 individuals, 20 crania)
>Sahelanthropus tchadensis (7.0-6.0 mya) (1 site, 6 individuals, 1
>cranium)
>
>based on this limited data, we have nearly 1,000 individuals, with
>nearly 200 crania. I expect the final number to be over 3,000 given the
>estimate of the Catalogue of Fossil Hominid published by the British
>Natural History Museum (almost 4000 as of 1976). It is unclear if this
>refers to NISP or MNI.
>
>So, next time a creationist regurgitates the "Neanderthal Man, Nebraska
>Man, Java Man, Peking Man" bullshit, as if we only have a few remains
>available, here are some raw numbers. I expect to gather many more when
>I get the recent volume of human evolution by Wiley covering craniod
>remains.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Ben
>