Word: fossilizes
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...final clue that Lucy was the missing link came when Johanson's team assembled fossil fragments, like a prehistoric jigsaw puzzle, into a fairly complete A. afarensis skull. It turned out to be much more apelike than human, with a forward-thrust jaw and chimp-size braincase. These short creatures (males were under five feet tall) were probably no smarter than the average ape. Their upright stance and bipedal locomotion, however, may have given them an advantage by freeing their hands, making them more efficient food gatherers...
These ages might never have been seriously questioned were it not for a scientific maverick: the IHO's Curtis, one of the authors of the Science article. In 1970 he applied a radioactive-dating technique to bits of volcanic pumice from the fossil-bearing sediments at Mojokerto. Curtis' conclusion: the Mojokerto child was not a million years old but closer to 2 million. Nobody took much notice, however, because the technique is prone to errors in the kind of pumice found in Java. Curtis' dates would remain uncertain for more than two decades, until he and Swisher could re-evaluate...
Counters Christopher Stringer of Britain's Natural History Museum: "If we look at the fossil record for the last half-million years, Africa is the only region that has continuity of evolution from primitive to modern humans." The oldest confirmed fossils from modern humans, Stringer points out, are from Africa and the Middle East, up to 120,000 years B.P., and the first modern Europeans and Asians don't show up before 40,000 years...
...next fossil find could even point to an unknown branch of the human family tree, perhaps another dead end or maybe another intermediate ancestor. The only certainty in this data-poor, imagination-rich, endlessly fascinating field is that there are plenty of surprises left to come...
Examining the skullcap, ribs, part of the pelvis and some limb bones taken from the cave, Dr. William King, an Irish geologist, suggested that the fossil might be an extinct form of humanity, a different species. The skull, with its prominent brow ridge, led him to declare that "thoughts and desires which once dwelt within it never soared beyond those of a brute...