A Zorse is a Zorse of course of course and no on can talk to a Zorse of course that is of course unless the Zorse is the famous Mr. Ed.
Posted on 10/03/2001 12:16:47 PM PDT by blam
I tend to agree with the line of thinking that just because species might look alike, reproduction might not be possible. I think if reproduction was possible, then it would surely be reflected in the current situation.
Unless the Neanderthals weren't that thick of the ground. Which is an interesting debate in and of itself. Just how many were they?
Another debate along these lines is the strength of the influence of the original human population in Southeast Asia. That human population resembled the aboriginal population of New Guinea and Australia. It was hunter gatherer, and replaced by farmers. Not that thick on the ground. The debate is how much genetic influence they have on the current population in Southeast Asia. Some say they were swamped, and so it's not much.....
Precisely the conclusion I come to every time I watch C-SPAN.
We humans have NOT changed in 30K years. We are the cro-magnons. A bit taller, perhaps, but very much the same species. Why? Because nothing has wiped us out. We produce mutations all the time (webbed fingers, six fingers, dwarves, etc.) but there has been no reason for such mutants to survive while we go extinct, so we stay the same. The mutant genes remain as part of our gene pool, popping up from time to time, but the "standard" of our species predominates, and the appearance of a "typical" human remains more or less constant. Same with horses. The theory of evolution doesn't REQUIRE change. It EXPLAINS change.
Yes, was just trying to place a lower limit on the number of people that could make a word-of-mouth chain all the way back. If over the years life expectancy were something lower, say, 25, the number of people in the chain would have to be a larger number. With more retellings, the chance of getting more than one garbled version today of something that happened 30,000 years ago seems virtually certain.
Just like if 1200 people attended a memorable high school basketball game, each would notice different features of the game and 10 years later some story versions might not be recognizable even to others who were physically present in the bleachers at the time.
This is all pretty well obvious, but the small necessary size of the minimum human chain to prehistoric times was kind of interesting. I was actually thinking of eyewitnesses to the Crucifixion when I first started thinking this way. It's only 20 people. 20 could fit in an elevator, or be waiting for burgers at the local instameal.
Looked at this way, something that happened in Serbia 700 years ago, or in Arabia 1300 years ago, or that happened in America in 1776 could reasonably be viewed as nearly current events.
Yes! There are horse and zebra off spring alive today, I've seen pictures of them. Regardless, I got your point when you used that as an analogy.
A Zorse is a Zorse of course of course and no on can talk to a Zorse of course that is of course unless the Zorse is the famous Mr. Ed.
The problem is that erectus would have had to be able to navigate at least 50 miles in the open ocean for them to get there, and I don't think our scientists are willing to accept that yet.
They were blown there as passengers on south sea palms, like Darwin's finches.
I suppose that's just as possible as them walking over on the back of all the sharks that live in those waters.
I have always read that myself. However, last week I saw a map of the region, during the ice age, that showed a connection between New Guennea(sp) and Australia. (The first one like that I'd ever seen, I'll see if I can locate it again)
By-the-way, a "Big Bang" in art is supportive of ID and undermines gradualistic human evolution. It is not the "final nail in the coffin", but it is one more bit of evidence that favors the ID side, eh?
Every new thing could be claimed as a product of ID. Agriculture, fire, the wheel, use of metals, etc. ID is such a wonderful answer. But I prefer to give all the credit to Prometheus. (Why let man have any credit at all?)
On Java and Borneo you'll see human-like remains before that, simply because these islands were a part of the mainland during the ice ages. When Eurasia and North America were covered with ice, the ocean level was 150 meters (roughly) farther down.
Even with the water level that far down, land at the eastern end of the Indonesian Islands were still islands. That's the origin of the Wallace Line. Another very interesting subject.
Genetic evidence indicates that for a successful founder population to be established, you've got to have a critical mass of around 400 people. You can do it with less, if you've got genetic mapping, but they didn't have that.....
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