Page 173 - The Transitional Form Dilemma

HARUN YAHYA

now accept the need for Lucy to be removed from the human family
tree. 154

KNM-ER 1470 ( ) )
KNM-ER 1470 (
Richard Leakey described the skull which he identified as KNM-
ER 1470 and estimated to be 2.8 million years old, as the greatest dis-
covery in the history of anthropology. It prompted an enormous
reaction. According to Leakey, this creature had a small skull volume
like that of Australopithecus, but a human-like face, and was the missing
link between Australopithecus and Man. Shortly after, however, it was re-
alized that the “human-like” face of the KNM-ER 1470 skull, used as the
cover story in scientific magazines, was actually the result—maybe
even deliberate—of errors in putting together the parts of the skull.
Professor Tim Bromage, who works on the anatomy of the human face,
summarizes this fact with the help of computer simulations he pro-
duced in 1992:
When it [KNM-ER 1470] was first reconstructed, the face was fitted to the cra-
nium in an almost vertical position, much like the flat faces of modern humans.
But recent studies of anatomical relationships show that in life, the face must
have jutted out considerably, creating an ape-like aspect, rather like the faces of
Australopithecus. 155
The paleontologist J. E. Cronin says this on the subject:
KNM-ER 1470, like other early Homo specimens, shows many morphological
characteristics in common with gracile australopithecines that are not shared
with later specimens of the genus Homo. 156
C. Loring Brace of University of Michigan reached the following
conclusion regarding the skull following analyses he performed on its
jaw and tooth structure: “from the size of the palate and the expansion
of the area allotted to molar roots, it would appear that ER 1470 retained
a fully Australopithecus-sized face and dentition.” 157
Alan Walker, a John Hopkins University professor of anthropology

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