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Editor’s note: We’re thrilled to present a new series from geologist Casey Luskin who asks, “Do Fossils Demonstrate Human Evolution?” This is the first article in the series, which is adapted from the recent book, The complete guide to science and faith. Find the full series here.
Evolutionists generally tell the public that the fossil evidence for the Darwinian evolution of our species, Homo sapiens, of ape-like creatures is indisputable. In 2009, Ronald Wetherington, professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University, testified before the Texas State Board of Education that human evolution has “arguably the most complete sequence of fossil succession of any mammal in the world. No gaps. No lack of transitional fossils… So when people talk about the lack of transitional fossils or gaps in the fossil record, that is absolutely not true. And that’s not true specifically for our own species.1 According to Wetherington, human origins show “a beautiful, clear example of what Darwin thought was gradual evolutionary change”. But do the fossil records support such claims? Digging into the technical literature reveals a radically different story.
Far from providing “a beautiful, clean example” of “gradual evolutionary change” that has “no gaps” or “no lack of transitional fossils”, the record shows a dramatic discontinuity between ape and human forms. Human-like fossils suddenly appear in the record, without clear evolutionary precursors, contradicting Darwinian expectations. The fossil record does not show that humans evolved from ape-like precursors.
The fragmented field of paleoanthropology
The discipline of paleoanthropology studies the fossil remains of ancient hominids and hominids. Paleoanthropologists face many daunting challenges in their quest to explain human evolution from this hypothetical common human/ape ancestor. Their domain is fragmented in multiple directions, making it difficult to confirm evolutionary accounts of human origins.
First, the fossil record is fragmented and there are long periods of time for which few hominid fossils exist. The data is therefore “fragmentary and disconnected”, according to Harvard zoologist Richard Lewontin, according to which “[d]Despite the enthusiastic and optimistic claims of some paleontologists, no fossil hominid species can be established as our direct ancestor.2
The specimens themselves
A second challenge is the fragmented nature of the fossil specimens themselves. Typical hominid fossils consist of simple bone fragments, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions about their morphology, behavior, and relationships. As Stephen Jay Gould has commented: “Most hominid fossils, though the basis for endless speculation and elaborate accounts, are jaw fragments and skull fragments.”3
Flesh reconstructions of extinct hominids are also subjective. They often try to diminish the intellectual abilities of humans and overestimate those of apes. A high school textbook4 Neanderthals cartoons as intellectually primitive even if they showed intelligence and culture, and homo erectus as a clumsy, hunched form – even though his skeleton is extremely similar to that of modern humans. Conversely, the same textbook describes an Australopithecus (which, in reality, had a brain the size of a chimpanzee) with glimmers of human intelligence and emotion – a common tactic in illustrated origins books. human.5 The words of renowned physical anthropologist Earnest Hooton of Harvard University still apply: “The alleged restorations of ancient types of men have very little, if any, scientific value, and are only likely to mislead the public “.6
The sparse data problem
Third, the domain itself is fragmented. The sparse nature of the data, combined with the desire to make confident assertions about human evolution, often betrays objectivity and leads to heated disagreements.seven After interviewing paleoanthropologists for a documentary, PBS NOVA producer Mark Davis said that “[e]Every Neanderthal expert thought the last one I spoke to was an idiot, if not a real Neanderthal.8
Even the most established and confidently promoted models of human origins evolution are based on limited evidence. Nature editor Henry Gee conceded that the “[f]Fossil evidence for the history of human evolution is fragmentary and open to various interpretations.9
Next“The Standard History of Human Evolution: A Critical Look.”
Remarks
- Ronald Wetherington, testimony before the Texas State Board of Education (January 21, 2009). Original recording on file with author, SBOECommtFullJan2109B5.mp3, time index 1:52:00-1:52:44.
- Richard Lewontin, Human diversity (New York: American Science Library, 1995), 163.
- Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda’s Thumb: Further Thoughts on Natural History (New York: Norton, 1980), 126.
- See Alton Biggs et al., National Geographic Society, Biology: the dynamics of life (New York: Glencoe/McGraw Hill, 2000), 442-443.
- Biggs et al., Biology: the dynamics of life; Esteban E. Sarmiento, Gary J. Sawyer and Richard Milner, The Last Human: A Guide to the Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2007); Richard Potts and Christopher Sloan, What does it mean to be human? (Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2010); Carl Zimmer, The Smithsonian’s Intimate Guide to Human Origins (Toronto, Canada: Madison Press, 2005).
- Seriously Albert Hooton, On top of the monkey, rev. ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1946), 329.
- Paige Williams, “Digging for Glory”, the new yorker (June 27, 2016), http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/27/lee-berger-digs-for-bones-and-glory (accessed October 26, 2020); Donald Johanson and Blake Edgar, From Lucy to language (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
- Mark Davis, “Into the Fray: The Producer’s Story”, PBS NOVA online (February 2002), http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neanderthals/producer.html (accessed October 26, 2020).
- Henry Gee, “Return to the Planet of the Apes”, Nature 412 (July 12, 2001), 131-132.
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