Furthermore, "S. tchadensis" does indicate that the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees is unlikely to resemble chimpanzees very much, as had been previously supposed by some paleontologists.
The fauna found at the site suggest an age of more than 6 million years, as these species were probably extinct already by that time.
One study has suggested a much earlier split between the line which led to modern apes, and the line which led to modern humans.
The complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecule of the baboon "Papio hamadryas" was sequenced and included in a molecular analysis of 24 complete mammalian mtDNAs. The aim of the study was to time the divergence between the Old World monkeys (Cercopithidae) and the Hominoidea. That divergence, at 30 million years ago (mya), was a reference point for the split between chimpanzee, and "Homo" at 5 mya.
In the later study by Arnason and colleagues, two independent nonprimate molecular references were used. These two references suggested that the Cercopithecoidea/Hominoidea divergence took place >50 mya. Also, all hominoid divergences receive a much earlier dating. Thus, the estimated date of the divergence between "Pan" (chimpanzee) and "Homo" is 1013 mya and that between "Gorilla" and the "Pan"/"Homo" linage approximately 17 mya. The same datings were obtained in an analysis of clocklike evolving genes.
Remastersys
Remastersys is a free software/open source (GPL) script for Linux distributions that allows a person to:
It is a very useful and easy way to create a customized Live CD/DVD version of Ubuntu, once the system is installed and configured with programs, updates, etc... the user just has to:
The resulting iso can also be installed on a USB pendrive, creating a Live USB distro, using either a command-line approach or a graphical tool such as UNetbootin.
It has a command line version and a GUI version. It currently works with Ubuntu, and possibly more Ubuntu-based distributions. <br>
The latest version of Ubuntu (8.04) is already supported.
The Unknown Comic
Murray Langston (born 1945, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada) is a Canadian comedian and writer. His television work includes "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour", "Make Me Laugh", and "The Gong Show".
Langston is best known, oddly enough, as The Unknown Comic – a comedian who appears onstage wearing a paper bag over his head. He first appeared as the Unknown Comic on "The Gong Show". He did not want his true identity known, because an appearance on an amateur show could have hurt his comedy career, when he was already well-known.
Audiences liked the Unknown Comic, and Langston began to appear as that character on other shows, and in live performances. In time, Langston was as famous for the character as for himself. When he was finally unmasked in public (on a television show called "Real People"), the two careers became one. Langston has performed both as himself and as the Unknown Comic ever since.
Langston partly retired from his career during the 1990s, to focus on raising his daughter.
Australopithecine
The term Australopithecine ('australos' for short) refers to any species in the related genera "Australopithecus" or "Paranthropus". These genera occurred in the Pliocene–Pleistocene era, and were bipedal. The arrangement of their teeth, especially the dental arcade, was similar to humans. They did not have the large canine teeth characteristic of present-day apes.
They had a brain size not much larger than modern apes, lacking the large brain of the genus "Homo". They were mainly bipedal, but probably capable of climbing and living at least partly in trees. Their arms were longer in proportion to their bodies, and this also suggests their inherited capacity to move above the ground. The efficiency of their walking is difficult to estimate, but they were not so well adapted to bipedalism as humans. The males were much larger than the females, which suggests a family arrangement with a dominant male and several females, as with modern apes. Nothing is known for certain about their use of tools.
They are in the hominins,and appeared in the late Miocene.
When used alone, the term refers to both genera together. "Australopithecus" is sometimes referred to as the "gracile (slender) australopithecines", while "Paranthropus" are also called the "robust australopithecines".
Other genera:
A likely ancestor of the australopithecines is the "Ardipithecus" genus, which lived in East Africa. The genus "Homo" (humans), appears about 2.4 million years ago with "Homo habilis". Australos moved into mixed savannah/woodland habitats as the climate cooled in the later Miocene. This explains their adaptations to walking or walking plus climbing. It also explains the changes to their diet and teeth, though not in detail. The great increase in brain size of modern man began with the genus "Homo": it did not start with the australos.
The australopithecines according to Briggs & Crowther.
Sahara pump theory
The Sahara Pump Theory attempts to explain how plants and animals from Africa moved into the Middle East and then Europe and Asia.
At the time, Africa was rainier than it is today, and the Sahara was wetter, with bigger lakes and more rivers.
African rainy periods are associated with a "wet Sahara" phase, during which larger lakes and more rivers exist. This causes changes in the type of animals found in the area.
Regardless of the aridity of the greater Sahara, migration along the river corridor was halted when, during a desert phase 1.8-0.8 million years ago, the Nile ceased to flow completely and possibly flowed only temporarily in other periods due to Nubian Swell uplift.
During the periods of a wet Sahara, the Sahara and Arabia become a savanna grassland and African flora and fauna become common. During the following dry period, the Sahara reverts to desert conditions usually as a result of the retreat of the West African Monsoon southwards. Evaporation exceeds precipitation, the level of water in lakes like Lake Chad falls, and rivers become dry wadis.
Flora and fauna previously widespread retreat northwards to the Atlas Mountains, southwards into West Africa, or eastwards into the Nile Valley and thence either south-east to the Ethiopian Highlands and Kenya or north-east across the Sinai into Asia. This separates populations of some of the species in areas with different climates, forcing them to adapt, possibly giving rise to speciation (species splitting).
The Saharan pump has been used to date four waves of human emigration from Africa, namely:
US Airways
US Airways, Inc. was an airline that used to be owned by the US Airways Group, Inc. US Airways was previously known as USAir. It was the sixth largest airline in the United States. Its headquarters were in Tempe, Arizona. US Airways owned 357 large jet aircraft and 329 smaller planes that flew to 240 places in North America, Central America, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Europe. In May 2008, US Airways had 36,632 people working for them in the world and flew 3,512 flights each day. The US in US Airways stands for "United States".
US Airways had many flights from Charlotte, North Carolina, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Phoenix, Arizona. US Airways also ran smaller numbers of flights from Washington, DC, Las Vegas, Nevada, New York, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts.
The airline also had the US Airways Shuttle. It's a brand which operates frequent flights between cities in the northeast part of the United States. Other companies operate short flights for US Airways, which are called US Airways Express. After the AA combination, the brand is now known as the "American Shuttle".
In 2005, US Airways combined with America West Airlines, but they kept the US Airways name.