When scientists discover a new species of human based on one fossil, how do they know it wasn’t just one genetic freak?
In: Biology
Most likely because they don’t find just the one.
If you find a guy with a spine that’s curved in all directions in the midst of many regularly shaped skeletons, then thar guy is the odd one out.
But, if you find a whole community of human remains that have a common traits, than that’s a different specie.
What is a genetic freak?
Mutations happen randomly, but a single mutation doesn’t make a new species, more like thousands of mutations. Also many mutations prevent ever being born, because they break some mechanism that is required to grow in the womb.
The chance that one single individual has many mutations his parents didn’t (and he makes it to adult life) is extremely small. Think about dropping a box of parts and them randomly assembling a working mechanic watch.
Or another good methaphor is “blindly changing random letters in a book and making a new one that makes sense”
Fossilization is actually extremely rare. It only happens under certain conditions, which is why you can’t just dig anywhere and find a fossil even though billions of creatures die every year and have been for billions of years.
If you find a fossil, it is a very safe bet that was just the lucky corpse out of many more just like it that happened to get preserved.
They don’t know for sure. But most bones don’t become fossils, so if they find a fossil, there were probably a lot of bones like that.
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