Re: MOST IMPORTANT FOSSIL (A human skull as old as coal!)

Paul Z. Myers (myers@astro.ocis.temple.edu)
Sun, 03 Nov 1996 22:22:18 -0500

In article <55ktc0$f9b@news2.cais.com>, alweiner@presstar.com (Alan
Weiner) wrote:

>I checked-out the page you suggested. Evidently, this guy found
>million-year-old human skull bones. They were not fossilized, but were
>still the original bone matter. In addition, he found soft tissues,
>also not fossilized. Evidently, according to the article:
>
>"However, the scientific establishment has wielded its powerful
>disdainful influence deceipt, dishonesty, collusion and conspiracy to
>prevent evidence of the most important discovery of the 20th century to
>be documented as fact and, therefore, keep us from learning a monumental
>truth about ourselves. I assure you I know what I'm talking about
>because I discovered these petrified human remains and have had a
>ringside seat to the scientific establishment's despicable antics of
>suppressing an aresenal of physical evidence."
>
>So, it's obvious to all why everybody doesn't know about this great
>find. A conspiracy by the scientific community to supress this find.
>
>Unfortunately for the conspiratorial paranoids (well, just cauz yer
>paranoid doesn't mean people aren't really out to get you :) the
>"scientific community" isn't a monolithic entity. Big science is big
>business. If somebody came out with some real info that shattered a
>major theory, it would get out there faster than the speed of light.
>Unfortunately, that cuts both ways. Some folks think it's a great way
>to become famous.
>
>I'll be happy to keep an open mind about this, but it does certainly
>conflict with everyting I've learned about archaeology, anthropology,
>etc. To the 'believers' out there who know it's real, based soley on
>what the discoverer says:
>
>1) Is it possible to do any scientific experiments on these materials to
>either confirm or deny his assertions?

It's been done. Conrad has hoodwinked quite a few serious investigators
into looking at his stuff (usually by pretending to be a naive but
open-minded amateur who just wants to find out what these odd rocks are).
Usually, they tell him that this stuff is crap, at which time he pretends
they don't exist and he moves on to the next victim. In a few cases, he
has found an Authority who either says something ambiguous, or jollies
him along for a good laugh -- in which case he adds their little endorsement
to his collection of quotes, which he will trot out at the slightest
provocation.

>
>2) If so, what would they be?

Simple inspection of the gross anatomy, and examination of thin slices for
the histological structure of bone. The rocks are either featureless, or
have odd bumps and hollows that do not correspond to any anatomical
feature. Most of them are broken up--Ed has a large collection of "jaws",
which are basically any rock with a roughly right-angled curve in them and
broken edges where we ought to find tooth-bearing surfaces or articulations.

Microscopically, they look like concretions -- see Andrew MacRae's web
page for a more thorough description. There are tiny translucent spots
in the rocks that are flecks of quartz; Conrad has seized on these as
evidence of Haversian canals. However, they look nothing like bone, except
in the imagination of an obsessed loon. Check out my web page
<http://fishnet.bio.temple.edu/bone.html> for some examples of images
Conrad himself set up when he visited my lab this summer. You'll see for
yourself that his rocks look nothing like fresh human bone or fossilized
dinosaur bone -- although you may afterwards find his attempts to
rationalize his messy little rocks as looking kinda like bone absolutely
hilarious.

>

>3) Do you really believe that there is a monolithic scientific
>conspiracy that is actually the reason why your religious beliefs are
>not confirmed by scientific evidence?
>

It's the only excuse he can come up with. He has no training in biology,
paleontology, or geology, so he's completely lacking in the educational
ammo to fight a battle of the intellect, so he has to resort to nebulous
conspiracies and paranoia. He tried, for a while, to pass himself off as
an expert in bone histology on talk.origins -- the man's ignorance was
so blatant and appalling that that didn't last for long.

-- 

Paul Z. Myers                 myers@astro.ocis.temple.edu

Dept. of Biology              myers@netaxs.com     

Temple University             http://fishnet.bio.temple.edu/

Philadelphia, PA 19122        (215) 204-8848