Page 168 - The Transitional Form Dilemma

THE TRANSITIONAL-FORM DILEMMA

A Ramapithecus
skull and draw-
ings by evolution-
ists based upon it.

deep face and shorter incisors than
other monkeys, just like Ramapithecus and
the Australopithcines.
However, a 1982 article in Science
magazine called “Humans
Lose an Early Ancestor” de-
clared that this new transi-
tional form was
Ramapithecus
erroneous and noth- is not the an-
ing more than an ex- cestor of hu-
tinct orangutan: mans, as
depicted in
A group of crea-
these draw-
tures once
ings, merely a
thought to be our oldest
species of ape.
ancestors may have just been firmly bumped out
of the human family tree, according to Harvard
University paleontologist David Pilbeam. Many
paleontologists have maintained that ramamorphs
are our oldest known ancestors, evolving after we split away from the African
apes. But these conclusions were drawn from little more than a few jaw bones
and some teeth. The heavy jaw and thickly enameled teeth resemble those of early
human ancestors,” says Pilbeam, but in more significant aspects, such as the
shape of its palate, the closely set eye sockets that are higher than they are broad,
and the shape of the jaw joint, it looks more like an orangutan ancestor. 146

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