In Darwinian Evolution, there is no distinction between
micro evolution (change to species over time) and macro evolution (change in a
higher taxa over time). To a Darwinist,
macro evolution is simply micro evolution over a very long period of time. When it comes to human evolution, Darwinian
Evolution does not say that humans evolved from monkeys or apes; the theory
says that humans share a common ancestor with chimpanzees. There’s no need to
ask why there are still monkeys around or why we don’t have any duck-gator
fossils; these are misconceptions about the theory. The “missing links” everyone talks about are
the fossils that get from homo sapiens to the common ancestor we share,
including the common ancestor itself. Those
who oppose Darwinian Evolution have been quick to point out the gaps in the
fossil records and filling those gaps with “God did it”, which is where the
“God of the Gaps” label comes from. Over
time, scientists have found more and more fossils to close that gap….or have
they?
In Dmanisi, Georgia (by Russia), anthropologists discovered
a new hominid fossil that has rocked the evolutionary world…ok, that’s a slight
exaggeration. Estimated to be 1.8
million years old, this skull is the most intact hominid skull found from its
time period and is the earliest hominid fossil found outside of Africa. In Africa, paleontologists have labeled
several unique hominid species due to the separate geographical locations and
time periods they believed these hominids lived. Big deal, eh?
Here’s where it gets interesting.
In Dmanisi, this new skull (the one on the right) is very different from the other fossils
found in that same area and from the same time period. It prompted scientists to examine the
variations between the fossils found in Dmanisi and compare them to the
variations found in modern humans and also in modern chimpanzees. The variations in the Dmanisi fossils are within
the same range. This is causing
scientists to realize that what they thought were several different hominid
species might be part of one species, homo erectus, a predecessor to homo
sapiens. The human evolutionary chain may have shrunk by 5-6 species!
“David Lordkipanidze at the Georgian National Museum, who leads the Dmanisi excavations, said: "If you found the Dmanisi skulls at isolated sites in Africa, some people would give them different species names. But one population can have all this variation. We are using five or six names, but they could all be from one lineage."”
If Fezzik (Andre the Giant) and Princess Buttercup were
found in separate locations and from separate time periods, wouldn’t they also
be interpreted as different species? Is
it possible that some of these ancestor fossils are not as different from us as
some believe? As time goes on and more
fossils are found, I wonder how much more will the human evolutionary history compress.
