Page 127 - The Transitional Form Dilemma

HARUN YAHYA

In the mid-1980s, however, newly discovered fossils belonging to
the same species altered this view entirely. Based on these fossils, re-
searchers such as Bernard Wood and Loring Brace said that the classifi-
cation Australopithecus habilis, meaning “tool-using South African ape,”
should be employed instead of H. habilis, which means “tool-using
human.” This was because H. habilis shared a great many features with
the apes of the Australopithecus genus. Just like an Australopithecus, it
possessed a long-armed, short-legged and ape-like skeletal structure. Its
hands and feet were suited to climbing. Its jaw structure completely re-
sembled those of present-day apes. Its brain volume of 630 cubic cen-
timeters was another indication that this was an ape species. In short, H.
habilis, depicted by some as a transitional form, was actually an extinct
species of ape—like all other Australopithecines.
Research in subsequent years revealed that H. habilis was in fact a
creature no different from Australopithecus. The fossil skeleton and skull
referred to as OH62, discovered by Tim White in 1984, showed that like
modern apes, this species had a small brain volume, long arms useful
for climbing, and short legs.
Detailed analyses by the American anthropologist Holly Smith in
1994 again showed that H. habilis was actually an ape, not a human
being. After her analysis of the teeth of the species Australopithecus, H.
habilis, H. erectus and H. neandertalensis, Smith said the following:
Restricting analysis of fossils to specimens satisfying these criteria, patterns of
dental development of gracile australopithecines and Homo habilis remain clas-
sified with African apes. Those of Homo erectus and Neanderthals are classified
with humans. 100
That same year, Fred Spoor, Bernard Wood and Frans Zonneveld
arrived at the same conclusion by a very different method, based on
comparative analyses of the semi-spherical canals in the inner ear of
apes and human beings that serve to establish balance. Spoor, Wood
and Zonneveld summarized how the first fossils to exhibit human mor-
phology belong to the Homo erectus group, but that Australopithecus—

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