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Horno
erectus
Early
Horno
sapiens
Neandefthal man
ists. Neanderthal was robust and
strong, and bis brain, as explained
before, was every bit as large as ours.
Finally, we come to Cro-Magnon
man ("modern man"), usually dated
from 35,000 years agoto the present.
Cro-Magnon man is often presented
as a prime example of modern skull
structure, with a brain capacity of
about 1400ce. Yet, strangely, no trace
of Cro-Magnon has been found prior
to bis "recent" appearance on the
world scene.
Lining Up the Evidence
Arranging all these fossils in what
seems to be an orderly progression, a
lot of people can "see" how evolution
might have happened. On the surface
it looks almost believable-until one
begins to ask sorne probing questions,
sees the inexplicable gaps, and comes
to realize that even anthropologists
differ profoundly on just what tbe
evidence means.
One striking fact is the scarcity of
the fossil evidence. Although popular
reports give an impression to the con–
trary, the truth is that all the known
bones of supposed fossil ancestors of
man could be easily contained in a
small closet!
Actually there are about as many
ways of arranging the "evidence" for
According to C. LORING BRACE
man's evolution as there are archaeol–
ogists and anthropologists. Consider
sorne of the "family trees" proposed
for man's evolution.
Sir W. Le Gros Clark, the famed
British paleontologist, has
Homo
sapiens
the end product of evolu-·
tion, but with no known ancestors!
All the
Austra/opithecines,
the
Pi–
thecanthropines (Homo erectus)
and even Neanderthal man are
"branches" which are not in the
line of modern man! (See illustra–
tion below.)
At the other extreme is the family
tree of a well-known American an–
thropologist, C. Loring Brace. His