[Does so]

An FR post today describes the human-like footprints of a progenitor living in Africa 1.8M years ago:

"...The find casts important new light on the evolution of humanity’s upright stride, suggesting that Homo erectus, an ancestral species that emerged about 1.8 million years ago, walked with an upright gait little different from our own..."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5812463.ece

While you are definitely not going to want to call this slope-browed, hairy guy "Dad", his gait and footprint is just like our own.

On another note, I found it interesting that most humans' little toe never touchs the ground! (Ask your Podiatrist).

This is consistent with the model for mammalian species to have five fingers and five toes. (Or, in some mammalians' skeletal reminders of five fingers and five toes hidden beneath skin).

I thought perhaps it was due to the genetic limitations of the 10,000 or so human beings that survived the Sumatra super-vocanic cataclysm of 74,000 years ago; however, based on the article, it appears to have been ingrained in our DNA some 1.8M years ago.

Louis Leakey should have been looking in that layer of volcanic soil (where the footprints were found). :)

More on the recent development of blue-eyed people and the cataclysm (near bottom of page).

http://survive2012.com/news/labels/evolution.html

Another article describes the Sumatra super-volcano that reduced the Neandertal and Cro-Magnon populations to a few thousand individuals 74,000 years ago: http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/1202/1202blast.txt

The article points out that the Yellowstone Park super-volcano could cause another "leap" in human evolution, decimating Humanity's DNA pool to a few thousand "fit-and-savvy-survivors" once again.

[xzins]

a gait and footprint like our own

Certainly doesn't injure any argument about a designer using a common design.

Thanks for the info.

[metmom]

The article points out that the Yellowstone Park super-volcano could cause another "leap" in human evolution, decimating Humanity's DNA pool to a few thousand "fit-and-savvy-survivors" once again.

Another evolutionary bottleneck.

If groups as large as ones like the Amish are having difficulties because of (essentially) inbreeding, then how did all these evolutionary bottlenecks which allegedly reduced the population to a few thousand go on to produce healthy individuals?