The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #131699   Message #2986151
Posted By: GUEST,josep
13-Sep-10 - 07:26 PM
Thread Name: BS: The God Delusion 2010
Subject: RE: BS: The God Delusion 2010
//"Homo sapiens sapiens did not descend ladder-like from H. erectus, H. ergaster, H. habilus, Australopithecus--in truth there is no evidence these left any evolutionary descendants whatsoever. "

This is a misreading of the concept of Evolution. These examples are part of a tree
that when you go back far enough forms a basis for the branch called Homo sapiens.
There is quite a bit of evidence that these earlier forms had physiology that was similar
to present day Homo sapiens and enough so that it can be determined that there was a causal connection.//

The remains of H. habilis and H. erectus unearthed at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania by Louis Leakey were found at the same level (Bed II) indicating they were contemporaries. H. erectus skulls found on Java in 1996 date only from 27,000 BP and were found alongside H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens. Harvard palentologist Stephen Jay Gould was moved by such discoveries to remark, "What has become of our ladder if there are three coexisting lineages of hominids (A. africanus, the robust australopithecines, and H. habilis), none clearly derived from another? Moreover, none of the three display any evolutionary trends during their tenure on earth."