Morotopithecus - upright hominid-like 20 million years ago?

[Boab Bob]

I usually subscribe to the ponginae originating yowie theory and don't believe in the Gilroy skulls (unverifiable so that's that) but this fella/sheila is amazing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morotopithecus
A separate branch of the hominids that formed BEFORE the gibbon family branched off. Going way back but apparently it was BIPEDAL. https://anthropology.net/2007/10/16/aar ... ipedalism/
Later but very similar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australop ... _afarensis

Bob

[Simon M]

This makes sense to me - and fits with the 'convergent evolution' thing I always blabber on about. Those links are interesting.

[Yowie bait]

Wow 20 million years! Plenty of time to develop psychic abilities. Great find Boab Bob.

[Boab Bob]

Wow 20 million years! Plenty of time to develop psychic abilities. Great find Boab Bob.

If you're talking about telepathy then it's not really needed to develop - it's we in the modern world who have generally lost the capability. If it does really exist. I think the evidence is there as much as the yowie's. But isn't psychic ability is too speculative a subject for this section?

[Hominidhunter]

All good stuff, however, how do we get from a tooth or a few bones, then to some artists impression of what these animals even looked like, are we all tared with the same brush of evolution, do we all believe our ancestors were nearly hairless , like the "from monkeys to men" flow diagrams we got at school, an open question , I think we need an artist to add more hair to some of our older relatives, and see what the results are

[Yowie bait]

Wow 20 million years! Plenty of time to develop psychic abilities. Great find Boab Bob.

Boab Bob said
"If you're talking about telepathy then it's not really needed to develop - it's we in the modern world who have generally lost the capability. "

Yowie bait says
I totally agree with that Bob. Been thinking the same thing myself and you put it real well.

As far as whats on this section of forum, is not for me to decide. Could it be considered a physical ability though, considering it involves the brain? I was reffering to Simons ( and Neil Frosts) Marsupial theory and the possibility of the yowie being much more evolved than us and possessing certain abilities since theyve been around so long.

If the yowie is connected to these fossils or other hominoids then thats a long time to develop/ evolve or whatever.

I enjoyed the link. Very interesting. Still trying to wrap my head around how they know so much with so little skeletal remains and fossils. Must be a lot still undiscovered out there...

[Yowie bait]

All good stuff, however, how do we get from a tooth or a few bones, then to some artists impression of what these animals even looked like, are we all tared with the same brush of evolution, do we all believe our ancestors were nearly hairless , like the "from monkeys to men" flow diagrams we got at school, an open question , I think we need an artist to add more hair to some of our older relatives, and see what the results are

Here ya go.

[Simon M]

Gigantopithecus blacki was identified based solely on fossil teeth and jawbones. They do take a lot of liberties with the whole concept of an "artist's impression" in my view. The best artist I know of who painted lifelike images of prehistoric subjects (again, in my opinion) was Zdeněk Burian, and he painted in a super-realistic style, so any 'tweaks' he made were balanced out by the lifelike quality of his work.

I'm not sure if the Yowie is or isn't a marsupial, but I do think it's possible they're not apes. It's equally possible they are, but I don't believe it's a foregone conclusion just because they're bipedal. They may be marsupials, or something else that's so ancient we don't have a classification for it. My whole point is that we're assuming they're apes, or related to apes, but we have no actual proof.