".. jerky idea.."

My! That looks pretty judgmental! *grin*

Not having all the transitionals is unavoidable. Having a random few is merely an 'inconvenience' in most cases, as we can learn a huge amount from seeing how much they have changed.

"... but apart from this being, again, an appeal to authority and numbers, ..."

I will say this for the last time. That is a flawed, inaccurate interpretation of what "appeal to authority" actually means. You cannot fairly co-opt the agreed use of a technical term in logic in order to falsely use it for your own viewpoint. I am not sure whether you just misunderstand, or whether you are intentionally ignoring the meaning. READ THIS!


"radio carbon?.....found in things supposedly too old to be detectable!"

I made the point that radio carbon IS quite accurate back to Neanderthal times...and it does date Neanderthals as much older than you wish to grant. Even Utzi the 'ice man' is older than you wish to accept.READ THIS!

"neandertals.....give him a shave and a suit and you wouldn't notice him on a city street....just another human. "

Nonsense! He resembles a 'few' humans-because he WAS related to them by a distant line... but any doctor or DNA test would show clearly the many differences.