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Paleoanthropology

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

Paleoanthropology is a specialized branch of Paleontology and physical anthropology involved with the study of ancient human beings. Paleoanthropolgists are those investigating the origin and subsequent evolution of human physiology by examining fossil remains and other ancient evidence.

Mainstream anthropologists and archaeologists believe that humans began domesticating animals and plants in the Middle East about 10-12,000 years ago. The earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, developed in Mesopotamia about 7,000 years ago, after humans had developed agriculture sufficiently. This is the same location where many of the early Biblical stories in Genesis are set.

1 Antediluvian civilization
2 Table of Nations
3 Tower of Babel
4 Fossil Record
5 News
6 External links
7 See Also

Antediluvian civilization

Main Article: Antediluvian civilization

Creationists take the book of Genesis as recorded history. Genesis begins with an account of and original antediluvian civilization which no longer exists. Details regarding this first civilization are minimal, except for a terse genealogy, accounts of men like Enoch, and of a group of half-gods, half-men known as Nephilim. Genesis reports that the original civilization became completely wicked and was destroyed by a global flood sent by God, between 4500-6000 years ago.

Table of Nations

Main Article: Table of Nations

Subsequent to the flood, The book of Genesis records the Table of Nations and Genealogies of Genesis, which name and describe a number of individuals who Creationists believe established early civilization. The account is by no means exhaustive, but does name people who are reputed to have established Egypt, Greece, Canaan, and Sheba, as well as cities such as Tyre.

Tower of Babel

Main Article: Tower of Babel

Genesis reports that early civilization sought to built itself a tower to reach the sky, so that they might be as God. In order to prevent this, God scrambled their languages so that they could no longer understand one another, and mankind spread over the Earth into the present civilizations and races.

Archaeologists suggest that the legend of the Tower of Babel was invented at a later date to account for the remains of ziggurats built by earlier generations in cities such as Ur and Babylon. They consider that these large stepped structures were temples. Mainstream anthropologists agree that many modern language families developed from one original common source language. For example, the widely spoken family of Indo-European languages is believed to have evolved from one single ancestral language from the area around the Black Sea.

Fossil Record

Speculative evolutionary diagram of Hominidae phylogeny based on the interpretation of skeletal remains.

Creationists regard all supposed ape-man intermediate fossils to be either fully ape (i.e. Australopithecines) or fully human, although there remains some disagreement.

Genus Australopithecus - Fully Ape

Australopithecines - The genus Australopithecus is distinguished by their very ape-like skull (thought the teeth are more human-like than chimpanzee-like), small brain size (between 375 and 550cc), and knuckle-walking stance.
- Australopithecus afarensis = southern ape from Ethiopia.
  - Lucy
- Australopithecus africanus = southern ape from Africa. Gracile form with smaller jaws and teeth.
  - Taung Child
  - Mrs. Ples
- Paranthropus robustus = southern ape, robust. More massive teeth and boney ridges (sagittal and supramastoid crests). (Formerly Australopithecus)
- Paranthropus boisei = southern ape named after Charles Boise, Louis and Mary Leakey's financier. Formerly Zinjananthropus bosei (Zinj is ancient Arabic word for East Africa. (Formerly Australopithecus)

Ramapithecus - an Ancient ape fossil, considered most closely related to the orangutan.

Genus Homo - Fully Human

Humans - The genus homo is distinguished by their human like skull, large brain size, and upright walking stance.
- Homo sapiens = (Wise Man). Our species. Specimens dated as older tend to have smaller brain sizes, while still overlapping with the normal range of human brain sizes.
  - Cro-Magnon man (homo sapiens). A set of 4 home sapiens fossils found in a cave in France in 1868. The oldest fossils of homo sapiens known in Europe.
- Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal Man).
- Homo habilis = (Man with ability or handy man). The name "handy man" is given because of the evidence of the use of constructed stone tools with this species. Average brain size of 500-800cc.
- Homo erectus = (Erect Man). Brain size 750-1225. Specimens dated as older have a smaller average brain size than ones dated more recently, and some scientists advocate placing the more recent larger brained specimens in to a separate species, homo ergaster.
  - Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus) A fossil skull cap whose identification has been controversial.
  - Peking Man (Homo erectus pekinensis) originally named Sinanthropus pekinensis
  - Turkana Boy is a well-preserved near complete skeleton
- Homo ergaster (Working Man)
  
  From Thomas Huxley's Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863)
- Homo antecessor (Explorer Man)
- Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelberg Man)
- Homo floresiensis (Flores Man — discovered 2003)
- Homo rudolfensis (Rudolf Man)
- Homo rhodesiensis (Rhodesia Man)
- Homo cepranensis (Ceprano Man)
- Homo georgicus (Georgia Man)

Fraudulant or Erroneous Fossils

Piltdown Man (Eoanthropus dawsoni) Fraudulent fossil that was filed-down to look human-like and chemically treated to give it the appearance of age. It was hailed as proof of Darwin's theory for forty years.
Nebraska Man (Hesperopithecus haroldcookii). Refers to a poorly-preserved fossilized tooth incorrectly identified as belonging to a primate in the 1920s. A consensus was later reached that it belonged to a peccary (wild pig).
Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus) Fraudulant fossil claimed in 1891 by Eugene Dubois who was the first person to deliberately search for human ancestors. Dubois was a former student of Ernst Haeckel who became intent on discovering the missing link his mentor believed had evolved somewhere in Africa or East Asia.

News

Man's earliest direct ancestors looked more apelike than previously believed "Dr. Leakey produced a biased reconstruction based on erroneous preconceived expectations of early human appearance that violated principles of craniofacial development." EurekAlert, March 24, 2007
Earliest hominid: Not a hominid at all? The earliest known hominid fossil, which dates to about 7 million years ago, is actually some kind of ape, according to an international team of researchers led by the University of Michigan. The finding, they say, suggests scientists should rethink whether we actually descended from apes resembling chimpanzees, which are considered our closest relatives. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. June 19, 2006
Evidence that human brain evolution was a special event Howard Hughes Medical Institute, December 28, 2004.
The evolution and development of cranial form in Homo sapiens - "Despite much data, there is no unanimity over how to define Homo sapiens in the fossil record." PNAS, January 22, 2002 (Bold emphasis added)