Word: treeing
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...million), have been put forward as the most ancient of our direct ancestors. But Toumai is older still. If it is as modern looking as Wood believes, Lucy and the others may not be our direct ancestors at all but instead dead-end side branches of the family tree, like the Neanderthals. That would make them not our great-great-great-grandparents but rather ancient uncles and aunts whose lineages have long since gone extinct. One possibility is that Sahelanthropus gave rise to intermediate descendant species that have not yet been discovered. These descendants would have led to Homo habilis...
...this lends support to an evolutionary scheme that has been gaining scientific support. Instead of a tree, with a main trunk and a few side branches, hominid evolution is now viewed more as an overgrown bush, lush at every point with multiple competing species. The evidence certainly seems to point that way. Over the past couple of decades, anthropologists have been finding more and more hominid species dating all the way from hundreds of thousands to millions of years ago, many of them overlapping in time. During most of our ancestors' history, it appears, multiple species of humanlike creatures walked...
...maybe all these learned experts are barking up the wrong evolutionary tree after all. At least one equally eminent paleontologist, Tim White of the University of California, Berkeley, disputes the assertion that Toumai derails the standard evolutionary family tree, let alone plants a bush in its place. The discovery is a tremendous accomplishment, he says. "This fossil is the closest we've got to the common ancestor. But dentally, it's just like Ardipithecus, except for a few minor characteristics." The mix of primitive and more advanced traits leaves him similarly unimpressed, since such mixing has been seen in various...
...decade ago, the leading theory suggested that climate change had dried Africa out, replacing the forests, where apes thrived, with grasslands. A walking ape would be better suited to this environment, since tree climbing would be useless. Standing would give a better view over the top of the grasses of potential enemies. Also, a vertical position would offer less exposure to the harsh rays...
...Tree houses were once just fun backyard play spaces for kids. But these days, it's grownups who are living out their Swiss Family Robinson fantasies. "People come to us wanting one for their kids. By the end, the tree house has a martini deck," says Anna Daeuble of Seattle's TreeHouse Workshop. Those who build long-awaited nooks are equipping them with windows, electricity and insulation. The annual World Treehouse Conference offers construction classes. David Pearson, author of Treehouses (Chelsea Green) says, "In this very stressful age, building a tree house connects people back to nature in a simple...