Page 787 - Atlas of Creation Volume 4

Harun Yahya

This false impression of the Neanderthals lasted for 100 years. But analysis of the La Chapelle skele-
ton in the 1950s determined that the Neanderthal to whom it belonged had a kind of joint infection.
Healthy individuals were in fact able to walk just like normal human beings.
In 1985, the same skeleton was examined by the anthropologist Erik Trinkhaus. That examination

confirmed that Neanderthals walked upright and revealed another fact that had hitherto remained hid-
den: Marcellin Boule had deliberately portrayed Neanderthal as being stooped. 48 The joint disorder
identified in the 1950s was no obstacle to the individual walking upright. It appeared that the Darwinist
Boule was unwilling to admit that the Neanderthal walked like a normal human being.

E. Trinkaus and W. W. Howells made the following statement in Scientific American magazine:

Today most scientists agree that Neanderthal Man stood fully upright and that in the absence of disease, its
features are no different than modern humans. 49

Meanwhile, the size of the Neanderthal skull also forced evolutionists into inconsistency. The rea-
son was that Neanderthals had a skull volume of around 1700 cc; this is 200 cc more than the volume of
today’s human beings. The fact that Neanderthals, supposedly a “primitive” species, had a greater brain

volume than Homo sapiens represented a huge contradiction for the theory of evolution.
The Neanderthal expert Erik Trinkhaus admits:

Detailed comparisons of Neanderthal skeletal remains with those of modern humans have shown that there
is nothing in Neanderthal anatomy that conclusively indicates locomotor, manipulative, intellectual, or lin-
guistic abilities inferior to those of modern humans. 50

There is no doubt that because the Neanderthals were a human race they possessed the same fea-
tures as modern races. Neanderthal Man was a talented maker of tools and a skilled hunter. He even en-

gaged in music and art. They had a cultural and social structure, just like societies today, and had reli-
gious beliefs. 51 The civilization established by the Neanderthals was therefore no different to present-
day civilizations.
A further issue regarding Neanderthals that represents an insuperable dilemma for Darwinists is the

problem of dating. Fossils discovered show that Neanderthals were living at the same time as modern
human beings and that in some circumstances they were even living much later. Evolutionist biologist
Francisco J. Ayala from the University of California admits:

A few years ago, they [Neanderthals] were thought to be ancestral to anatomically modern humans, but now

we know that modern humans appeared at least 100,000 years ago, much before the disappearance of the
Neanderthals. Moreover, in caves in the Middle East, fossils of modern humans have been found dated
120,000-100,000 years ago, as well as Neanderthals dated at 60,000 and 70,000 years ago, followed again by
modern humans dated at 40,000 years ago. It is unclear whether the two forms repeatedly replaced one an-
other by migration from other regions, or whether they coexisted in some areas. 52

The Neanderthals, proposed as a so-called ape-like ancestor of man, are therefore actually an extinct

human race. In the same way that modern-day humans possess different features unique to their own
races, so the Neanderthals also had their own unique characteristics. Therefore, it is a huge deception to
use them as evidence for evolution. Indeed, the Neanderthal fossil was removed from the scientific lit-
erature in 1978. But the Neanderthals still appear in Darwinist references as if they represent some great

evidence of evolution.
The aim behind the speculation about Neanderthal Man that is still going on in some evolutionist
publications is to influence and mislead people who are ignorant of the true facts about the
Neanderthals, and who are unaware that they were a “transitional form” that has been scientifically dis-

credited. It is therefore of the greatest importance to highlight the true facts about Australopithecus and
the Neanderthals, and to put an end to this Darwinist deception.

Adnan Oktar 785