Re: An alternative to ST and AAT

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John Waters wrote:

> Gerrit Hanenburg <G.Hanenburg@inter.nl.net> wrote in
> article <56p69i$6uh@news.NL.net>...

> > >the life expectancy of the australopithecines?

> > 42.2 years.
> > Calculated using the regression equation for primates
> from
> > Harvey and Clutton-Brock (1985),

: exhaustive investigation by Alan Mann of the University of
: Pennsylvania indicated an average life span for A.
: africanus of 22 years.This was based upon a study of teeth.
:
: What do you make of that, Gerrit? I know your figure is an
: average for all types of australopithicenes, but this is a
: huge difference. How can the experts make such enormous
: mistakes? (Assuming it was a mistake).

Why do you characterize two different hypotheses derived from
different hard data as "enormous mistakes"?
They are simply different intrepretations of available data.
They are probably, within a rough first approximation,
both viable hypotheses. Unfortunately, science can be a
messy discipline...but that is what makes it interesting! :-)
<pb>

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