Human Evolution, or Something Else?
August 10, 2007From Cosmos Magazine:
The discovery of two fossils has challenged the belief that our early human ancestor Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis and suggests they co-existed.
The finds, on the eastern bank of Lake Turkana in Kenya – detailed today in the British journal Nature – are evidence that the two species may have intermingled for some 50,000 years in East Africa.
The team that found the remains was led by mother-daughter team Louise and Meave Leakey of the famed Kenyan anthropological family who have uncovered a host of critical human and hominid remains in east Africa.
Stirring controversy
One of the fossils is a 1.4-million-year-old upper jaw bone of H.habilis, which is the most recent fossil of the species known. The second is a remarkably well preserved skull of H.erectus, which paradoxically dates back even further, to some 1.55 million years ago.
“What is truly striking about this fossil is its size,” said Fred Spoor of University College London in the U.K., and one of the paper’s authors. “It’s the smallest Homo erectus found anywhere in the world.”
The recent discovery of the two fossils has created a stir among academics tracing humankind’s roots, as it challenges the presumed evolutionary timeline of the species: H.habilis to H.erectus to Homo sapiens.
“Their co-existence makes it unlikely that Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis,” said Meave Leakey of the Koobi Fora Research Project at the National museums of Kenya in Nairobi. “The fact that they stayed separate as individual species for a long time suggests that they had their own ecological niche, thus avoiding direct competition.”
H.habilis is a species of the genus Homo, which is thought to have lived from approximately 2.5 million to 1.8 million years ago.
If one reads this correctly, one human ancestor, homo erectus, was thought to have evolved from another human ancestor, homo habilis around 1.5 million years ago. But these recent fossil findings show that the h. erectus skull is older and smaller than the h. habilis fossil. In fact, the high priests of human evolution, Louise and Meave Leakey say that the people might have co-existed. I find this curious because when I was researching OOPArts (Out Of Place Artifacts) this week, I found a quote from Richard Leakey made in November 1998 after Cremo wrote a follow-up to his and Richard Thompson’s Forbidden Archaeology:
Thompson and Cremo leveled a blow against the orthodox priesthood with Forbidden Archaeology, an exhaustive 900-page tome that makes the case for extremely ancient human origins, a scenario that leaves more than ample time and opportunity for lost civilizations, golden ages, and highly advanced man to have appeared and vanished from the face of the earth. Forbidden Archaeology’s barrage of ignored and suppressed accounts culled from the priesthood’s own forgotten annals – records of early and more recent archaeological finds – demonstrated that presumptions about the age of mankind and evolutionary theory simply do not fit the record written in the ground.
Minus the usual doctrinal biases, though admittedly supporting their own, Thompson and Cremo laid out an overwhelming array of evidence for extremely ancient man: a five-million-year-old skull from Italy; bones found in a 286-million-year-old coal bed in Pennsylvania; an ornate vase from 500-million-year-old deposits; and 10-million-year-old flint tools from Burma – to name just a few. Few critics take issue with the actual evidence Thompson and Cremo presented. Instead, some resorted to “infantile name-calling,” as Cremo put it in a recent interview, “refusing to confront evidence in a serious way – that was the response from what I would call the fundamentalist, Darwinist element.”
In Cremo’s newly released Forbidden Archaeology’s Impact, a collection of responses to the original work, anthropologist Richard Leakey admits he did not actually read the book.
But he had this to say:
“A quick glance at some pages suggests to me that your book is pure humbug and does not deserve to be taken seriously by any one but a fool.” Leakey went on, personally deriding Cremo while invoking one of scientific materialism’s main tenets: “Sadly there are some [fools], but that’s part of [natural] selection and there is nothing that can be done.” Yale University’s Jonathon Marks responded in a similar vein: “This is a must for anyone interested in keeping up with goofy popular anthropology; at well over 900 pages, it is a veritable cornucopia of dreck.”
Well, we didn’t expect the Leakey family to be objective about evidence showing human evolution in a different light than the established dogma, did we? But Louise and Maeve found themselves in a conundrum about their finds in which they had to back-track from the company line somewhat. I found the following article a little odd in that it wasn’t an explanation, but just a non-answer meant for public consumption from Maeve Leakey and Fred Spoor:
Analysis of the jawbone shows that Homo habilis, once thought to be a direct ancestor of Homo erectus and thus of humans, lived side by side with H. erectus, making them sister species rather than mother and daughter.
“They coexisted at the same time and in the same place for half a million years,” said anthropologist Fred Spoor of University College London, a coauthor of the paper appearing in the journal Nature. “How likely is it that one would give rise to the other?”
Coauthor Maeve G. Leakey of Stony Brook University in New York added, “The fact that they stayed separate as individual species for a long time suggests that they had their own ecological niche, thus avoiding direct competition.”
The situation is similar to modern Homo sapiens and Neanderthals living side by side in Europe 50,000 years ago, said anthropologist William Kimbel of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, who was not involved in the research.
Researchers once thought that Neanderthals were a predecessor of modern humans, but it eventually became clear that they were an evolutionary dead end. Now it seems the same is true of H. habilis, Kimbel said.
The finds “are consistent with a growing consensus” that the evolutionary tree of humans is highly branched rather than a single linear trunk, he said. The diversity, he said, tells us that “there is very little in the events of the early Pleistocene that can be seen as foretelling human adaptations.”
Sister species ay? Like Cro-Magnon Man and Neanderthals? Ok, sure. But all you proved is that these people are individual species, unrelated to each other. So who’s your Daddy? Or Mommy? And there is no explanation why one species is more advanced earlier than they thought and that they lived together at the same time, other than the Cro-Magnon Man and Neanderthal reason?
Human evolution and evolution in general are having many stones thrown at it because of the holes that is in the theory. Mainstream scientists say that is to be expected when a science matures. I take issue with that because it has been shown that mainstream science is not willing to accept curve balls thrown at it’s pillars of worship (like any dogma). Witness the treatment of Cremo, Thompson, Hancock, Bauval, Anthony West and others who dare ask the hard questions, and get hard evidence to boot!
Dogma is dogma in my view, whether it’s science, Christian, Islamic, Vedic, what have you. Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men told Tom Cruise, “You want the truth?” snaps Colonel Jessup .“You can’t handle the truth!” seems to be the mantra of the powers that be.
My take on the controversy is no matter what or how the evidence points to, the truth is always better than beneficient lying. I’m a free and sovereign entity and no matter what the NWO claims, I can handle the truth, however the bread falls. And even though this is a Christian saying, one can take wisdom from it: (John 8:32) “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Sources
http://www.grahamhancock.com/news/index.php
http://www.mcremo.com/impact.htm
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-sci-skull9aug09,0,261948.story?coll=la-home-center
There are strong feelings about this subject.
I know I’m just askin’ for trouble.
But what the hell, I like stirring the pot!
John 8:32 is for non-Christians, Dad.
Good piece… I’m glad you posted it and not me.
My word isn’t worth shit with many “free-thinkers.” Coming from you, a professed non-Christian, it will have credence.
Interesting article…
but I am a believer in God and that God created all.
What really is damning about how archeology is handled in the present is that it is highly politicized and territorial. Human artifacts and fossils found in rock strata that is tens or even hundreds of millions of years old should be treated as the wonders they are, not something to be ignored, or in some cases “disappeared”.
This also gives credence to the idea of some tinfoilers that that NWO is using science as a replacement theology to replace others. By the acts of cover-up and destroying evidence just makes the NWO and its minions look all that much more guilty.
So what if Mankind is hundreds of millions of years old and has had up and down cycles? So what if the evidence shows that the Universe is full of superbeings? (and this is plausible, given Vinge’s Singularity Theories). If Mankind has mingled with them in the past and might in the future, that’s great.
The NWO’s idea is to tell people that they are crap and that they need to be guided like good little sheep. Which is bullsh*t.
Are they two separate species, incapable of reproducing with each other, or two members of the same species but of different races capable of doing so. Every fertile human being is capable of reproducing with people from other races on this planet. We are all one species. And apparently, DNA shows we are descended from one or more of eight people, the same number that were in Noah’s Ark, incidentally.
I never accepted the teachings of Christianity.
The nonsense of ribs being taken from Adam to create Eve and so on and so forth. Science and logic and an open mind to how human DNA first arrived on Earth is far more compelling to me than the mythology of the Bible.
No offense those who hold a different view but I hope my views are tolerated as well.
Anthony: As the article reads, the Leakeys maintain that the species homo habilis and homo erectus are two different species and can’t interbreed. The same as neanderthals and Cro-Magnon.
Christopher: Of course your opinion is good here, don’t ever think otherwise. I can tell the difference between honest opinion and trolls, and thank God, Buddha, Shiva or whatever, I don’t seem to be plagued with. (trolls that is).
Nobody in my opinion has an absolute claim to Truth. Some people have their faith which sustains them, others have faith in scientific evidence. But we are all like blind men in a dark room groping an elephant, we can discern some parts, but we fail to see the whole.
As a walker of the Path, my opinion is that faith and science aren’t so different from one another, just another means to an end.
Maybe in this next Cycle our collective awareness is stepped up a notch.
I don’t get that there’s a controversy. Scientists always slug it out to further their own findings and in this way our understandings progress.
This certainly does not disprove evolution!
Mirth: No, it doesn’t disprove evolution. But evolutionary theory in it’s present form should “evolve” with the evidence that is being found, or has been found. Don’t ridicule the evidence because it doesn’t fit a predetermined paradigm.
Nice to see ya by the way!
How’s the “civilian” life?
The thing about evolution that eludes me is, why us?
In other words, if evolution is a linear process that unfolds over a very long period of time, adapting to climate changes, availability of food and so forth, why haven’t other ape-like creatures so made the leap?
It seems that in order to accept evolution, you must make a similar leap of faith that the religious people require you to make when they discuss Christ rising from the dead.
I think that is why I was so totally blown away by the De Vinci Code. It helped to fill in so many of the blanks you aren’t taught in Catholicism. I was the always the kid who pissed everyone off because I kept questioning everything and asking why and wanting a logical explanation.
Eventually, when my questions weren’t answered I started looking elsewhere for answers.
That is the same argument proponents of intelligent design and creationists make against evolution Christopher, “Why didn’t other creatures evolve along like humans?”
And I know you’re neither Christopher, so the way I see the evidence is to say that evolution isn’t linear at all. It seems to have many branches, gaps, leaps, dead-ends and cycles.
It’s the cycles that have my attention presently.
That’s what the ID people think? Yikes! I’m not one of them.
You have me thinking though: maybe evolution isn’t linear at all, but a series of starts and stops and successes and failures.
Still though, why humans? If we’re 98% the same as apes or chimpanzees, why didn’t those species make the leap? I just can’t wrap my pea brain around it.
I think George Bush is the missing link. Seriously, he looks so simian that I always think of Bobo the Chimp when I see him all dressed up in his handlers clothes.
The most logical explanation is that all creatures have evolved within their physical capabilites and/or limitations. For instance, if one doesn’t a larynx, speech is impossible.
*dragging Christopher from IE clutches*
He could be the missing link. I know for a fact that UH’s Mongo has a MENSA IQ when compared to the Chimperor’s.
Of course being a mouth-piece for his elitist handlers doesn’t require an IQ higher than a flatworm’s!
I have been studying different sites and blogs this afternoon / evening concerning extraterrestrial life (ETs) , the Fermi Paradox and the Anthropic Principle. Wild stuff, especially the Anthropic Principle since it involves theoretical physics. I needed to take some Tylenol after reading that stuff.
Everyone seemed to be in their own little silos of information and echo chambers. Nobody was interested in alternative thought except at a couple of sites. If people took time to listen and think, they would find they aren’t too far from each other. Dogma is rife in the scientific community.
There are even in modern times distinct differences in skull patterns in different types of men, such as the aborigines from down under with slightly Neanderthal characteristics. I believe that observation is the main tool of science, and that most theory involves the ego which is the harbinger illogical thought.
There is much to be learned in the study of the Grand Canyon. At the very bottom where the Rio Grande now runs are the roots of an ancient mountain range that was formed about 1.7 billion years ago. The rock that is found here is solid granite and some sedimentary rock is found at 1.25 billion years ago that contains
some fosiles of algae. There is an unconformity of about 450 million years in which the rocks are missing.
This is where the SWAG system (scientific wild assed guess) comes into play. But for now i’ll stick to the SWIF system (so what if). What if this ancient mountain range was leveled by a cataclysm like being hit by a errent planet and knocking off a moonsize chunk. Any life or evidence such as fossils would be pretty much completely wiped out. Metamorphic rock would gradually under heat and pressure change to forms of ignius rock and so forth. Geologist’s call it the rock factory, and life would eventually come in the form of a spore or something water born that starts growing in the volcanic vents on the sea bottom.
So the planet through the process of evolution and maybe even devine intervention could become what we have today. A multitude of primitive life forms with powers beyond their comprehension.
A little far fetched I admit, but this is the joy of being a free thinker.
Nobody was interested in alternative thought except at a couple of sites
Alternative thought? LOL! The subject itself I think more than qualifiess for alternative thought.