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June-July, 1970
presumably
would have something even
closer to ancestral roan" (F. Clark
Howell,
Early Man,
New York: T!ME–
LIFE Books, 1968, page 36).
Note carefully the above quote. Here
is how the process takes place.
First, it has been .ASSUMED that mao
evolved. Next, using analogy - no
proof in itself - anthropologists look
at what characteristics are human and
non-human.
Next, it
is
ARBITRARlL
Y
decided that
such-and-such a type of creature would
make a good ancestor. After this, a suit–
able stratum is searched to iind this crea–
tute- again begging the question.
If
a
creature is uncovered in the suitable
stratum, he is hailed as another "missing
link." But is he really? Were pre–
historiaos on the scene to watch the evo–
lution in progress? No, of course not!
They have merely inferred it.
Can we begin to understand?
Anthropologists
do not
"see" evolu–
tion in action. They assume
it
has taken
place. They read this assumption
into
the fossil record.
Take ooe example -
Amtralopith–
ecru ' -
assumed
by
sorne to be a link
in the supposed evolutioo of man.
A
New Missing Link?
In 1959, Dr.
L.
S. B. Leakey, diggiog
at Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika, found
fossils of a creature called
Australopith–
ecm.
Close to the fossils were pebbles,
which anthropologists regard as tools.
Here, claimed anthropologists, was
a real toolmaker and too! user. Here
was a creature on the way toward
Homo sapiens.
Most accepted the
identification.
Sorne authorities hesitated to accept
the conclusioos. They found it difficult
to believe that creatures with such small
brains were capable of makiog tools.
These authorities felt that more advanced
and larger-brained hominids were
responsible for the tools.
Said Car!eton S. Coon, "We do not
know whether the Australopithecines
made tools. We only know that sorne–
ene was flaking tools in Australopithe–
cine country when those hominids lived
there.. ..
If
the Australopithecines did
not make the stone implements in ques–
tion, then they could only have been
The
PLAIN TRUTH
NEANDERTHAL MAN
-
a
brutish ancestor? Reconstruc–
tion of Neanderthal empha–
sized prevail ing idea that
he was brutish. But the
original reconstruction
actually based on a
eased specimen! later exam–
inotions hove indicoted thot
Neanderthal Man was as tall
as his discoverers and that
he had greater brain capac–
ity than the average Euro–
pean does today.
Courtesy of An:tericon
Museum
of Noturol
Hístory
made by true men, of whom no physical
trace has yet been found" (Carleton S.
Coon,
The Origin of Races,
New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1962, page 23
7).
That
Australopithecru
walked
uprigbt seems to be verified. He
was
a
strange creature. In fact,
ATJstralo–
pithecm
may have been alive until a
few hundred years ago. Sorne similar
forro may be alive yet today.
The Chinese philosopher Hsun-Tzu,
who lived about 400 B.C., wrote that
"an ape the size of a man and covered
with hair lived in the Yellow River
Valley in his day, and also that
it
stood
erect" (Carleton S. Coon,
The Origin of
R.aces,
New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1962, page 17).
A book entitled
Anatomical Dic–
tionary for Recognizing Various Dis–
eases
origínated in Tíbet and was
published in Peking at the end of the
eighteentb century. It contains a system–
atic descriptíon of the fauna of Tibet
and neighboring regions.
"Many species of mammals, birds,
reptiles, fish and so on," saíd Carleton
S. Coon, "are induded, and each is
illustrated with a recognizable woodcut.
41
"Not one of the animals is fantastic,
composite, or mythical. Among them, in
a group of monkeys, a tail-less, bipedal
primate is shown standing on .a rock,
with one arm outstretched upward"
(Ibid., page
207, 208) .
Since the idea of evolution
pre–
wpposes
sorne NEED to change - we
might ask: "What in the world is
AustralopitheC!IS
doing alive in recent
times when he was supposed to have
evolved into something else MILLlONS
of years ago ?"
Does
ArutralopitheCTJs
"link up"
smoothly with ancestors and descen–
dants ? The answer is a resoundíng
"No!"
Says W.
E.
Le Gros Clark, Oxford
Anatomist:
"The fact is that the most serious
hiatus [gap
J
now in the record of
hominid evolution is the gap wbich sep–
arates the genus
Allstralopithectu
fcom
the fossil hominoids....
"It is true that'' - now read carefully
the following - "by
extrapolatíon
backward and by .AN.ALOGY with
what is known of the paleontolog–
ical history of other mammalian groups,