It’s not uncommon to see meaningless guff in a science article published in mainstream news outlets.

A phrase I’ve come across recently is “oldest human ancestor”.

Scientists Reveal 3.7 Million Year Old ‘Little Foot’ is Oldest Human Ancestor

In this case they are talking about an australopithecus specimen called “Little foot” which is about 3.7 million years old.

If we were to take this to mean the oldest ancestor of humans, it would of course not be true. The oldest ancestors of humans lived at a very minimum 3.5 billion years ago. One would hope that no one who went to school would think that this 3.7 million years old fossil is the oldest ancestor of humans.

But what else could it mean? Presumably they meant something. If they just meant “the oldest human” or “the oldest human fossil”, surely they’d say so. Why add “ancestor”?

Even if they did mean “the oldest human fossil”, on what basis is this correct? It is not in the genus Homo. It’s not the oldest Australopithecan.

So what, if anything, do you think they mean?

dv said:

It’s not uncommon to see meaningless guff in a science article published in mainstream news outlets.

A phrase I’ve come across recently is “oldest human ancestor”.

Scientists Reveal 3.7 Million Year Old ‘Little Foot’ is Oldest Human Ancestor

In this case they are talking about an australopithecus specimen called “Little foot” which is about 3.7 million years old.

If we were to take this to mean the oldest ancestor of humans, it would of course not be true. The oldest ancestors of humans lived at a very minimum 3.5 billion years ago. One would hope that no one who went to school would think that this 3.7 million years old fossil is the oldest ancestor of humans.

But what else could it mean? Presumably they meant something. If they just meant “the oldest human” or “the oldest human fossil”, surely they’d say so. Why add “ancestor”?

Even if they did mean “the oldest human fossil”, on what basis is this correct? It is not in the genus Homo. It’s not the oldest Australopithecan.

So what, if anything, do you think they mean?

I think they really meant to say old ancestor But got too close to the subject not taking a step back to look at the bigger picture which would have given them more information revealing much older humans

Could mean oldest hominin (relative of humans closer than chimpanzees). Except that would be disputed by other researchers.

Bubblecar said:

Could mean oldest hominin (relative of humans closer than chimpanzees). Except that would be disputed by other researchers.

Yes. That would be a very unusual claim, as it would mean all the Australopithecans older than 3.7 m.y. are closer to chimps than to humans.

It is possible that the journo just got the wrong end of the stick: read that Little Foot is older than Lucy and let his imagination run wild.

I thought that the correct answer was ‘Boris’.

I thought that the correct answer was ‘Boris’.

‘spose i should be thankful you think me human.

dv said:

…….. So what, if anything, do you think they mean?

I think it means that a lazy journo didn’t do quite enough reading on wikipedia.

I have a similar problem with a local journal who despite being told time and time again that “blown out” doesn’t appropriately describe finding new infestations of invasive species after an eradication grant, continues to use the phrase, undermining the work of dozens of people.

ChrispenEvan said:

I thought that the correct answer was ‘Boris’.

‘spose i should be thankful you think me human.

You couldn’t be anything else.

Probably that, plus I think sometimes people don’t think before publishing, or maybe there is confusion between author and editor.

A few years back I read a piece in a pop-Sci mag about some fairly interesting botanical discovery, saying that the newly discovered group were “the descendants of the very first multicellular plants” (or words to that effect).

Maybe they mean they thought ‘e lived to the ripest old age of any ancestral human,

SCIENCE said:

Maybe they mean they thought ‘e lived to the ripest old age of any ancestral human,

Yeah but again, Boris.

keep that up and you’ll never know what it is to grow old!!!!