Re: Who Killed the Australopithecines?
JoeBeaver (joebeaver@aol.com)
24 Apr 1995 01:20:49 -0400
BARD writes:
> Let's back up a little here....
Good idea.
> We're talking about genocide of A. species by the next
> "higher" order.
> That would be H. habilis.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have just made my life much easier.
First, A. robustus appears to have outlasted H. habilis. Did they reach
out of the grave (figuratively, of course) to kill A. robustus?
> I used H.sapiens in my example because of our documented history
> of genocide not because I believe H.sapiens killed off A. species.
And second, you did indeed use H. sapiens. Are you asking us to ASSUME
that since H. sapiens has done something, so must H. habilis? That's like
saying that since my cat likes to play with balls of yarn, so would his
feline ancestors a couple million years ago.
> BARD
Finally, what we see here is an extended chain of maybes and might-bes.
As you have FINALLY admitted elsewhere (a post responding to Phil
Nichols), you have no evidence. That being the case, you should have
posted your hypothesis in a different fashion initially. It would have
been far more appropriate to present this idea as something to be
considered, rather than as a polemic against the practice, methodology,
and assumptions of paleoanthropology.
Joe Beaver
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