Re: The straw man.
Phillip Bigelow (n8010095@cc.wwu.edu)
9 Nov 1995 15:58:51 -0800
>In article <47ovnf$3a1@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> Alex Duncan
><aduncan@mail.utexas.edu> writes:
>> ... AAH could be unfalsified (in my view) by
>> the discovery of fossil hominids that had unambiguous skeletal
>> adaptations to aquaticism.
clarke@acme.ist.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke) responded:
>Open your eyes, man, a case could be made that Lucy shows unambiguous
^^^^^^^^^^^!?!
>skeletal adaptations to aquaticism. She could wade far better than
>any other ape.
And, following your logic even further, modern humans , because of their
greater femur and tibia lengths, and straighter pelvis, probably can wade
better than Lucy could. So, if Lucy shows less skeletal adaptations to
aquaticism than does a modern human, why aren't modern humans aquatic?
Face facts: there is a LOT about Lucy's skeletal structure that is
presently ambiguous.
>By the way, what's the official PA line on the so-called
>"West Side Story" - hominid, pongid speciation caused by geographic
>isolation of the African Rift?
Thomas, I have been wondering about this attitude for some time...
why does the AAT-side cling to this simplified belief that there is some
kind of "official" paleoanthropological view of paleoanthropology? There is
a plethora of conflicting views held by the scientists; all you have to do
is open the latest issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, or journals of a
similar vein, to see just how multi-viewed the scientists are.
Elaine Morgan and her twisted belief that paleoanthropologists all cling
to some type of "official theory of the savannah" aside, there really is a
multitude of theories in the scientific community.
<pb>
|