Meet the grandparents

[michel123456]

Fascinating.

In the article, scroll down to the end to see 3 reconstructions of homo neanderthalensis.

 

Meet the grandparents: Researchers use forensics to rebuild 27 faces of man's ancestors, stretching back 7 million years

Models built from forensic reconstruction of fossil skulls

Reconstructs face age when humans and chimps shared common ancestry

Ancestors from when 'hominids' first emerged in Africa

 

 

look here for the Daily Mail article

[Appolinaria]

Dang, we were attractive.

I wonder if in a couple million years, if we survive until then (probably not), my face will be recreated and displayed with the younger of the species going "ewww!"

 

Is there a way to predict what we'd look like? What route we'll go, how our genes will change to adjust better to our environment? What we might look like in a couple million years? I'm sure it's been done.

[Myuncle]

What we might look like in a couple million years? I'm sure it's been done.

 

 

In the next 10 or 20 years we will choose how to look like, thanks to new genetic treatments, stem cells. Also nano bots inside your body will modify bones, cartilage, and every single cell, we will choose how to look like. This can be very useful in the future. For example if humans want to colonize a planet much bigger than the Earth, only short and small people can adapt to this new planet, so we will need to quickly change our body. Or if we will colonize a very small planet or the Moon, only tall people will adapt to this lack of gravity, and so on...There is no limit of what we can do with the new technologies coming up in the next decades.

[CharonY]

That is heavy sci-fi and most certainly not realistic (if at all) within a timeline of 20 years.

[Appolinaria]

In the next 10 or 20 years we will choose how to look like, thanks to new genetic treatments, stem cells. Also nano bots inside your body will modify bones, cartilage, and every single cell, we will choose how to look like. This can be very useful in the future. For example if humans want to colonize a planet much bigger than the Earth, only short and small people can adapt to this new planet, so we will need to quickly change our body. Or if we will colonize a very small planet or the Moon, only tall people will adapt to this lack of gravity, and so on...There is no limit of what we can do with the new technologies coming up in the next decades.

 

Interesting.

 

I'm thinking over millions of years, even if we can alter our genes to adjust to our environment, Earth will still change, other factors will change... based on how we differ from our ancestors, it's inevitable we will be very different. Natural selection will still have a say even if we can change our genes.

[questionposter]

I don't think it could stretch back 7 million years, there's too much room for variation. Maybe if they actually found remnants of all of his ancestors.

[Sorcerer]

Dang, we were attractive.

I wonder if in a couple million years, if we survive until then (probably not), my face will be recreated and displayed with the younger of the species going "ewww!"

 

Is there a way to predict what we'd look like? What route we'll go, how our genes will change to adjust better to our environment? What we might look like in a couple million years? I'm sure it's been done.

 

Beauty is very subjective, and their are other traits which are also attractive. However if our cultural evolution continues on a similar path as it has in the past 100 or maybe even 500 years (I'd have to do some history on the ideal female/male form). I think we will look pretty similar.

 

I remember reading/lectures etc on Sexual selection being implicated as a driving force in our evolution, although the traits that were selected for included intelligence heavily, perhaps also our outward appearance is linked somehow to our intelligence. (I haven't yet seen an attractive mentally disabled person).

 

lol why did they make the neaderthals so wrinkly? Especially when u compare it to homo ergaster.

[Appolinaria]

Beauty is very subjective, and their are other traits which are also attractive. However if our cultural evolution continues on a similar path as it has in the past 100 or maybe even 500 years (I'd have to do some history on the ideal female/male form). I think we will look pretty similar.

 

I remember reading/lectures etc on Sexual selection being implicated as a driving force in our evolution, although the traits that were selected for included intelligence heavily, perhaps also our outward appearance is linked somehow to our intelligence. (I haven't yet seen an attractive mentally disabled person).

 

I do believe a lot of mental disorders don't cause any extreme physical differences from that of someone without. I'm sure that someone who's depressed won't look as healthy, but overall I don't think they are very discernible. If you're talking about something like mental retardation then that's a different story I guess.

 

For physical attractiveness, I've read things on the symmetry of a face and attributes that signify health... like long, healthy hair, unblemished skin, estrogen levels, blah blah blah. The slight changes to the way a face is constructed can also subconsciously make us think a certain way about someone's character. It makes sense that we would be attracted to the healthiest of the bunch. But I do not think "beauty" is the only factor in the driving force of evolution, nature will still kill off the weakest overall according to our environment's fluctuations regardless if we find it attractive or not. That's because I don't think what's attractive to people is only ever what's best for survival, just very likely.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2012 by Appolinaria

[michel123456]

For physical attractiveness, I've read things on the symmetry of a face and attributes that signify health... like long, healthy hair, unblemished skin, (...)

 

They did not include hairs in the exhibition's reconstructions.