In the New York Times article,"Lost in a Million-Year Gap, Solid Clues to Human Origins," they discuss how the ancestor of the Homo species remains a mystery. The period of frustration lies in the period between three million to two million years ago. At around 2.6 million years ago, Hominids were using tools and then, around that same time the Homo species appeared - without any kind of link between the two. The problem with the research correlating with this spans of time is not a lack of fossils or people searching for them, rather the lack of properly preserving the fossils. For me this brings up a few questions to mind. Why wouldn't anthropologists use proper preservation techniques on these very important fossils? These remnants could possibly outline the link between ourselves and prior species, yet they weren't properly stored? I don't really understand. They have found a jaw at that time that could represent the homo species, but they are not certain. Scientists are confused about whether the Homo or the Habilis species came first because the two overlap each other for half a million years and they are always finding older and older samples. One theory states that the Homo species migrated awayfrom the Habilis species and evolved quickly and then ultimately traveled back and mixed with the former group - but this is just one idea. Scientists believe they can uncover the dietary and environmental changes that fostered the change of species over time, which I find very interesting. Is the evolution of species a result of diet and enironment or is it just some kind of normal evolutionary progression that arises as a result of survival of the fitest? While scientists believe that they have all of the clues necessary to bridge a common link between all the species, they are still uncertain about the specific order in which these clues are layed out. What will it mean for our species when we figure out our common ancestor? Is our way of thiking about ourselves going to radically change? Will there be a major paradigm shift? I guess we just have to wait and figure that out. Only time will tell.