Page 210 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences

The Errors of the American National Academy of Sciences

For present-day human beings, an av-
erage was used, but no average could
be obtained for Neanderthal Man,
since the mtDNA sequence of only
one individual was examined.

2. The molecular clock difficulty

As has been discussed in earlier
chapters, the evolutionary inferences
based on the concept of the molecular
clock do not reflect reality. And yet,
the unconditional acceptance by evo-

lutionists of the "molecular clock"
concept lies at the root of the assump-
tion that modern man and the
Neanderthals were separate species.
G.A. Clark of the University of
Arizona has this to say about the un-
reliability of the "molecular clock"

method:
Molecular clock models are full of
problematic assumptions. Leaving
aside differences of opinion about
the rate of base pair substitutions,
how to calibrate a molecular clock,
and whether or not mtDNA muta-
tions are neutral, the fact that the
Neandertal sequence… differs
from those of modern humans
does not resolve the question of

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