Page 210 - The Evolution Impasse 2

208 Taung Child Fossil, The

Australopithecus were found in digs that the Taung Child he had found
fi nanced by National Geographic mag - was able to walk on two legs, since
a zine in Kromdraai, Swartkrans and ac cord ing to him, that part of the
Makapansgat in South Africa. Some spi nal cord known as the mag num
of these ape fos sils had a coars er was fur ther back than that in hu -
struc ture, while oth ers were small er mans, but fur ther for ward than in
and fin er. The coars er ones were mon keys. On the ba sis of this, Dart
bulk i er and heav i er than the oth ers, then claimed that the an i mal was ca -
with a larg er bot tom jaw and bony pa ble of stand ing on its two hind
pro tru sions over the eye brows be ing legs. This the o ry was not ac cept ed
their most dis tin guish ing fea tures. by sci en tists at the time, but was
Although these are all typ i cal ex - sup port ed un til the 1950s. However,
am ples of gen der dif fer en ces be - no part of the skel e ton that might
tween mod ern-day male and fe male per mit an es ti ma tion of bi ped a lism
mon keys, sci en tists per sist ed in re - was avail a ble. The on ly spec i mens
gard ing them as sep a rate spe cies. con sist ed of the skull and a few frag -
After Dart pre sent ed the fos sil ment ed thigh, hip and foot bones.
giv en the name Australopithecus af ri - Yet ev o lu tion ists still in sist ed on
ca nus, he re ceived sub stan tial crit i - their claims re gard ing bi ped a lism.
cism from sci en tists. Arthur Keith, Lord Solly Zuckerman had car -
one of the most prom i nent anat o - ried out per haps the most de tailed
mists to com ment on the fos sil, said: stud ies of the Australopithecines fam -
[Dart's] claim is pre pos ter ous, the i ly. Despite be ing an ev o lu tion ist,
skull is that of a young an thro poid ape Zuckerman thought that
. . . and show ing so many points of af - Australopithecus was noth ing more
fin i ty with the two liv ing African an - than an ape. Together with a four-
thro poids, the go ril la and chim pan zee, mem ber team, Zuckerman used the
that there can not be a mo ment's hes i - most ad vanced meth ods of an a tom i -
ta tion in plac ing the fos sil form in this
cal in ves ti ga tion, which be gan in
liv ing group. 237
1954 and last ed for sev er al years. In
According to ev o lu tion ists, what the wake of these in ves ti ga tions, he
Australopithecines shared with hu - de clared that these crea tures had not
man be ings was they had left the walk ed on two legs and were not an
trees and adapt ed to bi ped a lism in ter me di ate form be tween hu mans
(walk ing up right). Dart con clud ed and apes. The con clud ing re port by

The Evolution Impasse II