Conservapedia on Human Evolution
1. There are no fossils supporting human evolution
Conservapedia claims that human evolution, or paleoanthropology, states that humans evolved from more primitive species over 40 million years. The earliest changes with fossil evidence occur over the past two million years. The genus Asutropitheciesn represents the earliest hominids which we have fossil evidence for from four million years ago. The first of those is of the genus Homo was the Homo Habilis.
2. There is no plausible pathway for brain development
Conservapedia does not elaborate much on this but does have this diagram to the right illustrating the skulls thus far found from the human fossil record.
3. Human evolution is not a valid scientific concept
Conservapedia states that human evolution is not a valid scientific concept because it does not has many hypothesis to disprove it, none of which are mentioned on this page.
|
Debunking Science
On Conservapedia's Human Evolution page, there is very little comment on the science against human evolution. The main point of the page is to conclude human evolution is a theory that can't be true because there are no intermediate human fossils from the very beginning of human life to now, and there is no justification on the pathway of brain development.
There are Fossils supporting Human Evolution
The "claimed chain of human evolution" is in fact a true chain of human evolution. All of the skulls and primitive human remains have been found, documented and support the idea of human evolution. Not just the human remains but fossils, structures, foot prints and other examples of human exist allow scientist to understand when, where and how humans evolved. As the Earth's climate ebbed and flowed, so did human evolution. The earliest evidence of walking up right is from 6 million years ago. Footprints were found from one of the earliest humans, Sahelanthropus. We know this species may have walked up right because the spinal cord connects with the brain further forward on the underside of the head, indicating the head was held up in an up right position.
|
There is a plausible pathway for brain development
Scientists are able to debunk the pathway of brain development by studying the size of the inside of skulls and comparing them to close relatives such as apes. As well as connecting this information to when the fossils were found and other historic artifacts found around the site of the human fossil. For example, the tools found around the site can indicate how intelligent or high functioning the early human ancestors were. The famous fossil Lucy, who was an Australopithecus Afarensis, had skulls that sized between 400mL to 500mL. This was the start of brain divergence from apes. Homo Habilis, which is the first in the homo genus, was found to have lived 1.9 million years ago and had another significant jump in brain size and development of the frontal lobe, where we know the language function of our brain is. The next fossils, Homo erectus of 1.8 million years ago had a bit larger brain size. And as the brains got larger, language, culture, diet and more became more complex, indicating the increase of complexity of the brain function.
|