HOMO ERECTUS NEVER EXISTED
(left) Homo erectus skull (right) Homo sapiens skull.
Do these skulls represent two different species or merely
variants of the same species?
The record of human evolution is littered with skeletons---not
only the
legitimate bones of early hominids but also with discarded
evolutionary
charts and discredited taxons. A taxon is a welldefined
biological
classification, such as a phylum or species. We modern humans are
given the label Homo sapiens. We are told with great assurance
that
we evolved from earlier hominids, such as Homo erectus and,
perhaps, Homo nean derthalis. Homo erectus has long been a key
feature of all those charts of human evolution decorating our
textbooks.
But this venerable taxon is getting fuzzier and fuzzier.
"Reappraisal by Cornell University paleontologists of a
200,000-year-old skull from India's Narmada River suggests that
the fossil was probably a Home sapiens---not a Homo erectus---
and marks another spot of the globe where humans may have
evolved. .....
"The reappraisal of Narmada Man preceded the recently
announced discovery of two Middle Pleistocene fossils
from Yunxian, China, that seem to share the traits of Homo
erectus and Homo sapiens. Kennedy would like to bury the
taxon Homo erectus altogether, "Those who would like to
keep the taxon see a 200,000year-old Narmada Man as a
last gasp for Homo erectus," he said."
What will the anthropologists do now with all those skulls they
labeled so confidently as Homo erectus?
Actually, the possibility underscored by Narmada Man is that
modern humans evolved almost simultaneously
in several parts of the planet, not just in Africa.
("Homo erectus Never Existed?" Geotimes, 37:11, October
1992.)
Reference. Human evolution and paleontological evidence are
subjects covered in BHE in Biological
Anomalies: Humans III. To order this catalog, visit: http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/cat/sourcebook/