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sidering their great brain capacity
and other qualities, no one has been
able to give a reasonable explanation
for why they no Jonger exist. Yet in
many areas around the world, they
suddenly disappeared with dramatic
abruptness.
Neanderthals are not the missing
link in human evolution. Instead,
they give every. evidence of being in–
telligent men- maybe even a little
more
intelligent than you and 1!
Fossils Show Evolution of
Man?
But what about other fossil homin–
ids? If you're like most people, you've
probably heard about various fossils
from creatures said to be our ances–
tors, but you don ' t rea lly understand
just where they're supposed to fit into
man's evolution. That's not surpris–
ing, because few anthropologis'ts
agree on where they all fit in!
In lining up the fossils, most an–
thropologists, or "bone men," usually
start with something like
Ramapi–
thecus punjabicus
(the apeor "pithe–
cus" found in the Punjab Province of
northern India) . T his apelike crea–
ture is said to be 14 million years old
(by potass ium-argon da ting) and the
ancestor of all true hominids, includ–
ing man. The brain is on1y a few
hundred cubic centimeters in capac–
ity, and
Ramapithecus
is usually
classified as a prehominid.
Yet for the next 1
O
to 12 mi Ilion
years no "ancestors of man" are
known! There is a complete blank in
the record, even though one might
expect hundreds of "missing links" if
evolution had occurred. The di stin–
guished evolutionist Dr. John Pfeif–
fer admits: " Practically nothing is
known about bis development during
the period between fourteen million
and about five million years ago, the
biggest gap in the story of human
evolution."
The second type of fossil usually
offered as Adam's distant relative is
the
Australopithecine.
In 1924, Raymond Da rt , professor
of anatomy in Johannesburg, South
Africa, found what he called
Australopithecus africanus
("south–
ern ape of Africa"). Dating methods
placed it at three million years old
and its brain size was about 500 cub–
ic centimeters (about
one-t~ird
the
size of modern man's brain). Other
Australopithecines
seem to be four
24
or five million years old . But there is
no agreement among anthropologists
as to whether they are rea lly one of
our ancestors.
This is a lso true of the famous
Zinjanthropus africanus
skull , dis–
covered by Mary D. Leakey, wife of
the late Dr. Louis S. B. Leakey.
Zin–
janthropus,
one of tbe
Australopi–
thecine
type fossils , was a large
" maJe" specimen, dated a t 1.75 mil–
lion years old. " Zinj" was first pro–
claimed a "missing link," but eventu–
ally Dr. Leakey himself disclaimed
this. Instead, said Leakey, it had a
common ancestor with man.
The third type of fossi l lined up in
Ramal)41hecus
Australopdhecus
man's supposed evolutionary ancestry
a re the "ape men" called
Horno
erectus.
The " J ava man" and the
" Peking man" are examples of these
creatures, which a re said to have Jived
300 to 500 thousand years ago. Their
average brain size is nearly 1000 cubic
centimeters (about two-thirds the size
of modern man's brain), which make
them double the size of the
Australo–
pithecines.
Actually, sorne of the
Homoerectus
skulls were nearly 1300
ce and tbus were as large as many men
living toda y!
Neandertbal man, said to have Ji ved
from 100,000 to 35,000 years ago, is a
fourth typeoffossil cited by evolution-
Accord ing lo PHILIP TOBIAS