A ladder that looks like this?
Of course he believes in evolution. He's a paleoanthropologist. It's a prerequisite for those who want to survive in the profession. Evolution must be true, and we proceed from there.
Human evolution used to be a ladder. Now it's a bush. Is there any way that the theory can be falsified? As an outsider looking in, all I see is hand-waving, deceit, and manipulation of facts to fit a pre-existing theory. Arguments from authority are the weakest of all arguments, and judging from what I've read, completely useless in this field.
I have a degree in engineering. That doesn't make me an expert in paleoanthropology, but it does help me to recognize the tailoring of evidence to fit a pre-existing theory. The more I study the hard evidence, the more obvious this becomes.
A ladder that looks like this?