Posted on 02/15/2006 11:47:51 AM PST by truthfinder9
by Fazale (Fuz) R. Rana, Ph.D.
Where were you on September 1, 2005? Perhaps you missed the announcement of a scientific breakthrough: the influential journal Nature published the completed sequence of the chimpanzee genome.1
This remarkable achievement received abundant publicity because it paved the way for biologists to conduct detailed genetic comparisons between humans and chimpanzees.2
Unfortunately, the fanfare surrounding the chimpanzee genome overshadowed a more significant discovery. In the same issue, Nature published a report describing the first-ever chimpanzee fossils. This long-awaited scientific advance barely received notice because of the fascination with the chimpanzee genome. News of the two discoveries produced different reactions among scientists. Evolutionary biologists declared the chimpanzee genome as evidence for human evolution, but some paleoanthropologists were left wondering how humans and chimps could have evolved, based on where the chimpanzee fossils were found.
According to the evolutionary paradigm, humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor. About 5 million years ago, this ancestral primate spawned two evolutionary lineages that led to humans and chimpanzees. Anthropologists consider the physical, geographical separation of hominids and proto-chimpanzees to be the "driving force" for the evolution of humans and chimpanzees. They postulate that the formation of the Rift Valley isolated the hominids in East Africa (a hot, dry savannah) from chimpanzees in Central and West Africa (with warm, wet jungles). The geographical isolation of hominids and chimps, presumably, sent these two lineages along different evolutionary trajectories.
Evolutionary biologists think that fossil hominids like "Lucy," Homo erectus, and Neanderthals document the emergence of humans.4 Yet, until recently paleoanthropologists had no corresponding fossils for the chimpanzee lineage.
Surprisingly, the first chimpanzee fossils were discovered not in West or Central Africa, but in East Africa, near Lake Baringo, Kenya. These fossils, consisting of three teeth, dated to 500,000 years in age--meaning that chimpanzees coexisted alongside hominids. The Rift Valley provided no geographical rift for separate evolutionary histories, and therefore foils a key prediction of the human evolutionary paradigm.
Sally McBrearty, one of the paleoanthropologists who uncovered the chimpanzee fossils, noted, "This means we need a better explanation of why and how chimps and humans went their separate evolutionary ways. The discovery that chimps were living in semi-arid conditions as well as in the jungles seems to blow apart the simplistic idea that it was the shift to the savannah that led to humans walking upright."5
If the discovery blows apart a "simplistic idea," maybe it's time for a simple (and testable) idea--the RTB creation model for human origins.
What is even less well-known, is that, in his later years, Cheetah was nicknamed "Snaggletooth" and followed Tarzan at a considerable distance on their journeys back to the jungle.
Look up this person's publications on the web; the ones I found all dealt with creationism.
It looks like the author's religion is overriding the scientific training.
You can see this right here on FR. People who have a specific religions belief (such as young earth or a global flood) will ignore completely any evidence which contradicts their belief.
(Before you reply that evolutionists do the same, think of all the times creationists complain that we are "tweaking" the theory to fit new facts. That's because it is a science, not a belief system.)
LOL! I'd use a scale of 0-5 Hams, though. Better for the graphics potential, like 5-stars.
"The mind *boggles* at the ability of the anti-creationists to MISS THE POINT so badly."
Yes, indeed. Mindboggling.
Heh heh. Yeah, the 5 Hams would make a kewl visual. I'll get to work on a 256 pixel Ham icon right away.
Teeth wear more because of the Fall. Before Noah, even cheap cuts of meat had the texture of filet mignon. Besides, of course, Adam ate dinosaurs, which were peace-loving vegetarians and were, like Shmoos, only too happy to be made into sandwiches and burgers.
"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle."
LOLOL!
Are you the one who said the idiots are feeling useful today, or was it Antoninus? I get you mixed up sometimes.
I think that's Crick's theory. At least the alien part.
The Ham rating scale, created in honor of famous creationist Ken Ham , rates creationist articles on how stupid, mendacious, nonsensical, irrational, and just generally bad they are, ranging from one ham - only slightly silly - up to five hams - utterly mind-numbing.
If this article showed that humans and chimps were always in contact during the last 5 million years or so, it would weaken the speciation argument.
Re 900 age tooth wear.
I love it. Can you send me a recipe.
I don't know about scientific but rana is the Spanish word for frog.
That is as strong a statement of faith as any I have seen from any believer.
Besides they had filet mignon, ate dinasaurs, etc.
I just remembered. According to the Bible "expert's" posting, Adam and Eve were so long-lived because they were vegetarians. You need a better explanation. Maybe they had blenders. Oh, no electricity, darn.
lol that is too funny.
I wish I had an opportunity to take one of your classes!
But tell that to the poor slobs who had to endure Third Law Entropy and the Partition Function this morning.
Oh! I thought perhaps they were named after one of the survivors of the Noahic Flood.
You said that this article was worth eight Hams; I was prepared to award it a full Shem.
The comparisons of evolution to a faith are just endless in these threads. But no one has deigned to tell me whether they're trying to raise faith to the level of science, or lower science to the level of faith.
I know, -- just a blink of the eye to the Church of Darwin.
Nah, make it a Full Shemp.
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