Page 133 - The Transitional Form Dilemma
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HARUN YAHYA
people bore a surprising resemblance to H. erectus. Laughlin concluded
that all these “species” were in reality different races of H. sapiens—or
present-day Man:
When we consider the vast differences that exist between remote groups such as
Eskimos and Bushmen, who are known to belong within the single species of
Homo sapiens, it seems justifiable to conclude that Sinanthropus belongs
within this same diverse species. 108
Increasingly, scientific magazines are referring to H. erectus as
being an artificial classification, and to the fossils included within the
category H. erectus as insufficiently different from H. sapiens to be con-
sidered a separate species. American Scientist summarizes the debate on
the issue and the outcome of a conference held in 2000:
. . . most of the participants at the Senckenberg conference got drawn into a
flaming debate over the taxonomic status of Homo erectus, started by Milford
Wolpoff of the University of Michigan, Alan Thorne of the University of
Canberra and their colleagues. They argued forcefully that Homo erectus had
no validity as a species and should be eliminated altogether. All members of the
genus Homo, from about 2 million years ago to the present, were one highly
variable, widely spread species, Homo sapiens, with no natural breaks or subdi-
visions. The subject of the conference, Homo erectus, didn’t exist. 109
Scientists who support this thesis reached the conclusion that H.
erectus is not a different species, but a race within Homo sapiens.
There is a huge gulf between H. erectus, a human race, and the apes
that precede it in the “human evolution” scenario (Australopithecus, H.
habilis and H. rudolfensis). To put it another way, the first humans identi-
fied in the fossil record appeared suddenly and simultaneously, with no
evolutionary process.
Homo sapiens archaic,
Homo sapiens archaic,
Homo heilderbergensis and Cro-Magnon
Homo heilderbergensis and Cro-Magnon
In the imaginary evolutionary tree, H. sapiens archaic represents the
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