On Feb 17, 2006, at 6:21 PM, Bob W wrote:
As for the fossil record, biologists can confidently show a continuous sequence of transformations for a very large number of transitions, including the transition from Australopithecines to our own species.
My original training was in zoology and I worked for the Smithsonian Institution in that capacity after college. I agree with you, but not with your example. There really isn't much of a record when it comes to human evolution. All of the known fossils of Australopithecines and the earliest true humans could fit in one relatively small room. We have lots of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, but they are very late on the tree and tell us nothing about origins.
Only recently have some anthropologists been willing to come forward and say that the evidence for the "out of Africa" theory of human origin is pretty shaky, at best, and that there is equal likelihood of Asian origin. Most pre-human fossils have been found in Africa because that is where people have looked for them. Put money into looking in Asia, and, lo and behold, you find them there!
We know so very little of human prehistory that for us to say much of anything with any degree of certainty is just not possible. We don't yet know where we came from.
Bob
