"Orce Man" was a donkey skull (Talk.Origins)
Claim CC021:
- A skull fragment from the Andalusia region of Spain, originally hailed in 1983 as the oldest human fossil from Europe, was most likely a skull fragment from a four-month-old donkey.
Source:
- Gish, Duane T., 1985. Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record, El Cajon, CA: Creation-Life Publishers, p. 190.
CreationWiki response:
(Talk.Origins quotes in blue)
1. There is not enough of the fossil to make its identity clear. It is still uncertain whether the fragment is hominid or equine. It is a misrepresentation to call it misidentified when there was never a consensus on its identification in the first place. If not for its importance as possibly the oldest European human, the fragment would receive little attention.
Based on the above wording of the claim, Gish did not call it misidentified but simply said that it "was most likely" from a donkey. There is a big difference. Besides Talk Origins is in no position to accuse any one of misrepresentation, having accused Creationists of perpetrating hoaxes when they they are simply not convinced by Evolutionist arguments.
Additionally, Talk.Origins appears to be "straining at a gnat" in claiming that there never was a consensus on the fossil's identification. The identification was apparently sufficiently certain to dub it "Orce Man" and to call a three-day symposium on it, a symposium that was cancelled when the identification was called into question.
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